The Mind Thieves
by Aggie Escott
Summary: Rossi takes his friends on a holiday to Italy. What could go wrong? Well, just about anything actually! Rated T, may have to put that up later. Pleae R&R for me.
1. Recovery

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 1  
Recovery

_**A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work. Morris Fishbein **_

The four of them sat in the departure lounge. Reid had 'A Guide to Napoli' and was telling the others about the city and what they were going to see...whether they wanted to hear or not! He had never been to Europe before, and was really excited. It was, "Hey! Listen to this!" and he would read a list of statistics regarding the hours of sunshine in each month, and rainfall in inches. Aaron smiled inwardly; Reid would never forget those figures, whereas he had forgotten them as soon as he heard them.

He twisted round in his wheel chair and propelled himself towards the men's room. Dave got up immediately.

"Do you need help, Aaron. "

Aaron smiled over his shoulder. At least they were asking first now, and not jumping in to help without asking.

"I'm fine, thanks." He said, determined that he was going to regain his independence this holiday. It was hard to believe that it was only a week ago when he began to recover from his ordeal in the hands on Edward Fair and family. The doctors had told him that a combination of his own strength and the antibodies from Maureen had saved his life. He still was sick a lot, and they had told him it would take months for a full recovery, but his with strength of mind he was going to do better than that.

The others watched him go. Rossi wishing his friend wouldn't be so damned stubborn, Emily feeling immense pride; Reid just happy that he was recovering. They all hoped that this holiday would heal him enough to get back to work.

Reid had avoided getting the virus. The doctors said it was probably because he had a natural immunity to it, or possibly because he had a virus already. He had come down with a severe cold a few days later, and he was already incubating that. He was a bit wobbly on his feet still, but Dr Shutt had done a good job.

When the flight was called, Hotch was returning from the men's room. They were going to be the last to board, so there was no hurry. Dave had all the passports and tickets, they having decided to keep everything together.

Emily pushed Aaron's chair, and the other two walked either side of him. Hotch knew they were subconsciously in a protective formation around him. He thought it was nice that they cared so much; before this happened to him, he didn't realise the depth of their feelings.

When the plane had boarded, Spencer and Dave carried him onto the plane and settled him in his seat. He wasn't embarrassed by this any more. They managed to do this without stripping his dignity, and he loved them for it.

He sat by the window and watched the sea pass below him. The stress of getting ready for the flight had exhausted him, and having to go back to his house after all this time was traumatic. He had been initially upset that Haley hadn't brought Jack to see him, but as Dave had said, she left because of his job. She wouldn't want Jack to see him when he was so ill. Going home had hurt. Everyday living there didn't affect him; going back after a few weeks always tore at him, reopening wounds he thought were healed.

Dave, bless him, had gone back with him. Just having his friend there took some of the angst, but it still hurt. This was the place where he built his dreams. Now the dreams were over, all he could see were the ruins, smashed and destroyed. He collected what he needed and left as quickly as he could.

He wanted to go back there to live after this break, and maybe get back to work. Dave was good to him, but he was used to having his own space, and Aaron felt as if he was invading. Nothing Dave did made him feel like this. It all came from him.

He rested his head back and closed his tired eyes

-0-0-0-

"He's sleeping." Emily said. "I'm glad."

"I hope this holiday will refresh him, and not wear him out." Dave said, a worried frown on his face. "I got the tickets before that last case.

Reid put a comforting arm on his shoulder. "He has us to take the stress, Dave. He'll be fine."

Dave nodded, still not convinced.

"I wonder how Morgan is going to get in with Strauss." Emily said, changing the subject. "I'd love to be a fly on the wall."

"I wonder if he'll still be working there when we get back!" Reid said. "They will probably kill each other!"

Rossi laughed. He couldn't imagine them getting on too well either. "That's their problem, thank goodness."

-0-0-0-

Spencer plugged in his iPod and sat back, eyes closed, listening to The Foundation Trilogy...at last! Emily and Dave chatted together about their time pre-BAU. Dave had worked for the BAU right at the beginning when Hoover's legacy was still very much in evidence – when women weren't allowed, and they had lessons in bad language. Any transcripts to be typed up containing these naughty' words had to be typed up by the office 'Obscene Steno', an older woman who would not be disturbed by seeing such terrible things in print. It was in such an environment that Dave and John Douglas became founder members of the BAU resulting in the crack team they had today.

About half way through the flight, Emily and Dave were feeling tired, and not a little tipsy. They both tilted back their seats and went to sleep.

-0-0-0-

Aaron woke up as the seat belts sign came on. He fastened his and woke up Emily who was sitting beside him. He was surprised that he had slept for so long. He felt crumpled and untidy; he took his comb from his pocket and combed the hair off his face. His fringe was getting long now, and he thought of getting it cut. But not before the holiday! Maybe to go back to work.

They were all strapped in when the hostess walked down the aisle to check that her travellers were ready for the landing, and the pilot told them how hot it was in Napoli.

Aaron watched Napoli International Airport come closer. He was looking forward to this; he needed some stress free recovery time, and this far from Quantico, the other side of the world, would hopefully give him the opportunity.

He took out his picture of Jack and smiled. When he had asked his little boy what he would like Daddy to bring back from his holiday, he had said

"A car".

An Italian car – one that was covered in dents!

Emily finished her last drink, and Spencer put away his iPod. They sat back and felt the soft jolt as the plane landed.

-0-0-0-

The hotel was lovely. Dave had booked them all a separate room, sea view and veranda. They had adjoining rooms on the ground floor to make it easier for Aaron. Emily was in the next room to Aaron and he had asked her if she would mind unlocking the adjoining door just in case he got into difficulties during the night. She wondered if he could remember what she had told him when he was in a coma, and they thought they had lost him. Maybe tonight she would tell them again. She hoped that she would get the chance.

They took Dave out to eat on the first night. They wandered the little back streets where the Italians did their shopping and found a tiny unique restaurant where the food was genuine. They sat around a table on the pavement in the cool evening air, watching the local people go about their business. Aaron felt happy for the first time in a long time. The other side of the world to the evils of serial killers and hostage takers; life seemed so peaceful here.

After their meal they slowly meandered back through the streets to the hotel. Dave bought a local paper to see what was going on in the town over the next two weeks, but just wandering, observing the people and unconsciously profiling them was a fascinating pass time. They ended up in the hotel bar and bought a round of drinks each. It was good for them to see Aaron let his hair down and just enjoy himself, knowing that there could not be a phone call to wreck the evening. They laughed and giggled like school kids on a skive, and at eleven, Aaron said he needed to sleep. Emily wheeled him to his room.

"Do you need help?"she asked.

"A little." He said, as he pulled the tee shirt over his head. "Would you... erm...?"

She bent down to him and put her arms around his waist, as if to lift him from the chair. He put a finger under his chin and tilted her head back, looking into her eyes.

"Thank you." He said softly. He rested his other hand on the side of her face, his fingers in her hair. "Thank you."

She sank to her knees and brushed her lips softly onto his. He pulled her close and kissed her deeply.

"i remember what you said, Emily. Was it because I was going to die, or do you still feel the same?"

By way of an answer, she kissed him back. Aaron put his arms around her and drew her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, and he pressed his face into her hair, breathing the scent of her subtle perfume. He felt tears well up in his eyes, and pulled away.

"What is it Aaron?" she asked, touching his cheek with her finger tips. "I can understand if you don't want to do this."

Aaron felt the tears overflow. "I don't think I can." He said. "I am so sorry..."

"That's ok, Sweetheart. Let me just hold you tonight."

Tenderly, she lifted him out of the chair and laid him on the bed. She took off his jeans and shoes and covered him with the quilt, and stripped off to her underwear. Slipping into bed beside him, she felt a shudder run through her body; a tremble of excitement at being so close to the man she had wanted and loved for so long. Just laying there, his arms around her, her head resting on his muscular chest; it was all she ever wanted, and she could hardly believe it was happening.

-0-0-0-

In the bar, Dave and Spencer were drinking their last Rum and Coke as Dave read out the headlines of the paper he had bought.

"'Ladro mento'" he read

"What is it about?" Reid asked. "Please, translate it for me."

Dave read through the item to himself quickly.

"Something is going on, Reid." He said. "What ever you do, don't let Aaron see this. He will want to get involved, and he isn't well enough."

Spencer agreed. "Would you read it to me?" Reid was frustrated at not being able to read it himself and made himself a promise to earn Italian when he got home. In the mean time, he would read the phrase book he had bought at the airport.

"Ok," Dave said. "The headline means 'Mind thieves'."


	2. The Newspaper Report

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 2  
The Newspaper Report

Aaron didn't sleep much that night. He ran his fingers through Emily's hair, amazed at the love she had for him. He always gave his heart too easily, and got hurt. And then he was always surprised when others gave their heart to him. He knew he was good at his job, but other than that he considered himself to be boring and staid, not the kind of guy who had offers of love more than once in a life time.

Haley had loved him, he was sure of that, and through his own stupidity, he had failed to water the delicate flower, and it had shrivelled and died. For someone like him, that should have been his one and only chance. And yet, here he was with his arms around a lovely woman, who was happy just to lay there and hold him.

He looked down at her again. Yes, she was lovely. He looked at the way the early morning sun picked out gold highlights in her hair. Doing his best not to disturb her, he reached out for the phone and called room service. He ordered breakfast for two, coffee and a rose in a vase. And a local paper, as he knew that Emily had a smattering of Italian.

As he put the phone down the woman in his arms stirred, and pulled him closer. Aaron tilted her head up and smiled at her. She reached up and kissed him.

"Hello Sweetheart." He said. "Breakfast is on its way."

They lay in each other's arms. Aaron closed his eyes and felt Emily's warmth, a feeling he had forgotten. Emily nuzzled his skin and kissed his chest. She couldn't understand why it had taken her so long to tell him. She was thinking this could turn to love. She felt his hands in her hair and she sighed happily.

Room service arrived with the breakfast, Emily got up and slipped Aaron's shirt on and let them in. They wheeled the trolley into the room, and quickly left. She smiled at the rose in a little silver vase.

"Would you like breakfast in bed or do you want to get up?" she asked. She knelt on the bed beside him, and he reached for her, lifting the quilt so that it was around her. He pulled her close and kissed her neck. This time he was ready for her.

-0-0-0-

Dave had showered and dressed and was sitting alone in the restaurant when Spencer came down and joined him. He ordered an English breakfast. He knew what it was but had never actually had one, and when it arrived, Dave frowned at it.

"You can't possibly want all that as soon as you've opened your eyes! Think of yor arteries!"" he said, eyeing the huge pile of food. Spencer smiled and tucked into the breakfast.

"I think I can manage. What I need to research is why the British people aren't huge if they eat this every morning."

Dave took out the newspaper he bought the day before. "Three children have been found wandering the Vesuvio National Park. They were all unable to communicate, as if their minds had been wiped. Two have died of respiratory failure. The third is on life support."

"How did it happen? Do they have any idea?"

"Doesn't seem so." Dave said. "They thought at first it could have been shock – seeing something that sent them catatonic. But the trauma pattern was different."

"Aaron's coming!"

Dave quickly folded the paper onto the local attractions page.

"Hey! Aaron, Emily!"

Emily wheeled Aaron's chair to the table.

"Do you want breakfast?" Dave asked, standing up.

"We've eaten thanks." Emily said. She glanced at Spencer who was examining his finger nails. She sat down next to Aaron and took his hand.

"Take a look at this!" Aaron said, putting the newspaper on the table. "Three children, two have died, one on ...erm ...I think holding up the living." He pointed at the word and turned the paper round and showed Dave. "That word there." He said.

"Life support." Dave sighed. "Aaron, we are here for your recovery. We shouldn't get involved."

"But we might be able to help them." Aaron said. "We could advise them..."

"Aaron," Emily said. "We should keep away."

"Could we just go out to where the children were found? On the Vesuvio Park, a few miles east of here."

"Actually, the main market is here today, in the city centre. I'd really like to go to that." Emily said.

"That sounds good!" Spencer enthused. He wasn't exactly desperate to get to the market, but he wanted to distract Aaron from the case in the paper. Spencer still got back aches. He didn't feel up to working a caseespecially in a country where he couldn't speak the language.

-0-0-0-

Later on that afternoon, the four of them went to the market. As it turned out Aaron enjoyed it immensely. Emily pushed the chair and piled Aaron up with things she bought. Aaron found a car for Jack that he could sit in.

They met up in the evening on the promenade and ate take out pizza followed by huge ice creams, watching the sun go down.

Walking back to the hotel, Dave pushed the wheelchair while Emily and Spencer walked on ahead. He guessed what they were talking about.

-0-0-0-

"I spent the night with him, Spence. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry." Reid said. "It's ok."

Emily smiled at him. "I didn't want any tension between us." She said. "I don't want anything to disturb Aaron's recovery."

"Especially a local police issue." Spencer said. "I can understand what Aaron is saying, but I don't know about you, but I want a holiday from profiling."

They stopped and waited for Dave and Aaron to catch up. Aaron was laughing at something Dave had said. It was so good to see him laugh.

They walked slowly back, all tired and ready for a quiet evening in the bar.

"I want to try and walk." Aaron said. "Please would you help me?"

He reached out his arms and Dave and Spencer held him and carefully lifted him from the chair. Emily winced seeing the concentration on his face, the pain he was so obviously in.

"You don't have to do this, Aaron." Dave said. "You have plenty of time."

Aaron tried to balance on his own, carefully lifting his arms from the grip of his friends. For a second he stayed up, and then he attempted to move his legs. That was when his power betrayed him, and he fell forwards. Dave and Spencer caught him and stopped him from hitting the ground, but Emily could see how devastated he was at his failure.

They helped him back to the wheelchair; Emily stooped in front of him. Dave and Spencer went on ahead, giving them some time.

"That was pathetic." Aaron said. His voice was shaky and Emily thought he might start to cry. "Why in heaven's name can't I walk? I had an infection, not a broken back."

"Aaron, Honey, You were so weakened by it. Your lack of strength does not matter." She said, cupping his face in her hands. "Look what you achieved this morning."

Aaron reached out to her waist and pulled her close. She smelled good and he felt excited. He just had to get out of this goddamned chair.

Em pushed him along the narrow street catching up with the others Aaron was laughing as the chair shook and rattled over the cobbles. When they finally reached the hotel, they made their way to the bar and ordered their first round.

"I really want to check out the area where those kids were found." Aaron said. "Just out of interest of course."

"Yeah" said Dave. "Right."

"We could go up now," Aaron said. "Quick look round, we'll be back before dinner.

Dave realised that nothing was going to keep Aaron away from the park, no mater what he said. The whole day he suspected Aaron had been building up for this.

"I don't think I will come, Aaron. I am a bit tired, and I really wanted to go on a drive tomorrow."

"I'll take a rain check, Honey." Emily said. "I'm kinda tired too."

"I'll come!" Reid said, his eyes shining with excitement. At last, something to think about, and not just wandering round doing nothing. "It won't be completely dark for a while yet."

"I'll call a taxi." Aaron said, and manoeuvred the chair towards reception before anyone tried to change his mind..

Spencer spread a map on the table. "Where were the kids found, Dave?"

Dave reached in his bag for the paper, and opened it out to the page. He showed him the area.

"It is a heavily wooded area to the north, close to the base of the volcano.

Spencer drew a circle around the area.

"Take care with Aaron's chair, won't you?" Emily said. "Take care of him."

"Hey don't worry! I'll look after him. We'll be back for dinner." He glanced at his watch "Say two hours."

"Taxi will be here in five." Aaron called. "You coming?"

Spencer al most skipped over to Aaron. They left together, and went out to wait for the taxi.

Emily turned to Dave. "I don't like it, Dave. I wish they weren't going."

"I do too. But this is Hotchner and Reid we're talking about."

"But they are unarmed, and they haven't even got their cells."

"Come on. Let's get a drink." Dave said. "And don't worry. What could happen? One is a genius and the other is in a wheel chair!" He got up and went to the bar.

"...which is exactly why I'm worried." Emily said under her breath, and followed him to the bar.

-0-0-0-

When the taxi arrived, Reid helped Aaron into the back and strapped him in, and folded the chair. The driver lifted it into the boot, and Reid opened the map and showed where he wanted to go. The driver frowned at him, but he nodded, and soon they were rushing through the darkening streets at a speed that Aaron cringed at. Gripping the arm rest, he looked forward to the safety of his wheel chair. He realised that what they said about Italian drivers was not a myth after all. When at long last they stopped, Spencer paid the driver, and asked that he return at eight thirty. Aaron sat in the back seat with his seat belt still on and his hand still gripping the arm rest waiting for Spencer to help him out of the car. He had never been traumatised by a car ride before, but then he had never felt so utterly useless before.

The air smelt of ozone as Reid pushed the chair through the woods along a well used path.

"I think we are going to have a storm, Spencer. Perhaps we should wait till tomorrow and come back with the others."

"Well we're here now, let's have a look round." Spencer handed Aaron his flashlight and the two of them pushed deeper into the woods.

Aaron felt nervous, something he often felt on a case, but then he would use it to his advantage, and direct the energy into solving it. This evening was different though. There was a feeling in the air, almost a palpable fear permeating the woodland. The wheels crunched on the pumice that littered the area, and Spencer's feet crunched behind him. He felt vulnerable without his gun, and he wanted to turn back.

"Isn't this wonderful! " Reid enthused. "Real volcano ozone!"

Despite his reservations, Aaron smiled. Nothing could dampen this man's enthusiasm.

The path turned sharply to the right just ahead, and as Spencer turned the corner, a bramble caught on the wheel of Aaron's chair and stopped it in its tracks.

"Hey, can I use the flashlight, Aaron, I need to untangle this."

Aaron shone the light over the side into where the brambles were caught in the wheels.

"Don't touch it, Spence." Aaron said. "Just get me off this chair!"

The tendrils seemed to be growing as they watched. A piece wrapped itself around Aaron's foot, tearing at his skin as thorns grew where there weren't thorns a second ago. He grabbed at the thin green branches, when he heard a shriek from Spencer. A tendril started to grow up along his chest towards his unprotected neck.

"Spencer, help me!" He started to panic, and tipped himself forward out of the chair and gripped a root that was growing across the path.

He looked around for Spencer, and saw he was fighting his own battle, the tendrils around his bare legs, thorns growing into the flesh, and pulling him to the ground.

"Spencer! Fight it!" Aaron shouted, as he pulled the trailing thorns off his neck, hearing the tearing sound as the thorns ripped into his skin. He watched in horror as the chair he had been sitting in was engulfed by the mass of tendrils and as the thin branches shrunk in on itself, the chair was dragged away into the darkness.

"Help...me!" Spencer yelped as he was pulled off his feet.

"Oh god, Spence! Hang onto something!" Aaron reached for him, and Spencer reached back. They gripped each other's wrists and held on. And for a moment, it looked as if they might just win this. The trailing brambles shrunk back. But then just as they thought they might be ok, they flooded back. Aaron saw them wrap themselves around Spencer's neck, thorns growing as before, tearing at his face and through his shirt. Aaron hung onto him with all his strength as blood spurted from puncture wounds on his body.

"Spence! Spencer!" Aaron screamed in fear. He looked into the younger man's soft hazel eyes, pleading eyes. Slowly, their grip on each other weakened. As Spencer slipped away from him, he watched in impotent terror as Spencer was dragged away from him into the depth of the forest. He heard a scream, and everything fell silent.

In the distance lightening flashed and the rain started.

-0-0-0-

"_**Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and vigour; but they grope ever upward towards consciousness; the trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground."- Ralph Waldo Emerson**_


	3. Living Forest

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 3  
Living Forest

"_**Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."**_

_**Kevin Arnold **_

"I am not happy about Aaron and Spencer being out there on their own." Emily said, looking at her watch. It was three minutes further on than the last time she looked. She was hoping it would be more. "Maybe we should have stopped them."

"Emily, Hotch isn't the team leader for nothing." Dave said. "If he wants to do something, he will. We couldn't have stopped him."

"Yeah I guess so. Then we should have gone too."

"I think Reid wanted some time with Aaron. They are due back in half an hour. They'll be fine."

-0-0-0-

Aaron was lying on his back on the path, looking at the deep blue of the sky, cloudless and blemish free. The trees were still now; there was no rustling, no movement, no sound.

He tried to remember why he was lying there in the woods. His legs were hurting, and he had a long bleeding scratch on his chest. He touched his neck with his finger tips and felt blood.

Spencer... he remembered Spencer had been with him. He called his name, and the sound failed to travel past his lips. It was as if the air was too thick to let it pass.

He tried to get up, but his legs were weak and useless.

"Spence?"

Then a shriek split the closeness, and Aaron remembered. Something had taken Reid from him. Something terrible...

"I'm coming to get you, Spence!"

He tried to gauge from what direction the cry had come, but it seemed to come from everywhere. He could hear crying, sobbing, and it sounded as if the trees were in distress, weeping to be free.

Aaron dragged himself to the edge of the path.

"Spencer!"

Silence again. The crying stopped and Aaron felt real fear – a deep terror that froze him to the spot.

He had face death before; he had looked down the barrel of a gun, he had been tortured, but nothing prepared him for this dread that shook him to the very core.

"Spencer..." he whispered. "Where are you?"

There were overhead branches that he could touch. As he reached up for them, he saw his hands were shaking. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

_Stop shaking. Spencer is depending on you. Get a hold of yourself and be the leader you are supposed to be!_

He gripped onto the branch and pulled himself up. There was no strength in his legs, and he lay across the branch for support. He looked around. He was sure he had a flashlight but it was either broken, or switched off; there was no beam on the ground.

He clung onto the branch, breathing heavily with the effort of staying up. He realised he only had one sandal on, and nettles and thorns were catching at his bare legs and he knew his right foot was cut and bleeding.

Another branch just a few feet away. He had to get to it. He ducked under the branch he was hanging onto, and lowered himself down. Using his arms, and pulled himself on to the next tree. As he dragged his legs through the undergrowth he knew that the brambles were tearing at his unprotected body. His shirt was ripped; the brambles sought their way onto his skin, and nettles whipped at his face; it felt as if he was fighting a living being.

He drew closer to the tree, and reached up for the branch, but it was beyond his reach. Tears of frustration sprang to his eyes.

"Spencer! Where are you?" he panted in exhaustion, lay supine in the vicious undergrowth, wondering what the hell he was going to do.

-0-0-0-

Spencer was shaking. He tried to remember what had happened, but everything was a blur. He thought he had been with someone; someone important; someone he loved...

A man... Aaron... Aaron Hotchner...

Who was it?

His name was gone...

A name. His name being called. He opened his mouth to call back and pain shot through his face as a thorned tendril crept between his lips and tightened there. Air escaped his lungs and he shrieked in agony as the tendril probed down his throat, ripping and tearing as it went.

An arm was free. He lifted it to his face; thin creeping stems slithered into his nose and ears. He felt them tight around his hips and thighs and they probed deeply into him...

He whimpered as thorns sprang into fragile flesh and blood trickled, running onto the forest floor.

Why was he alone here? Why didn't he bring someone?

Who was there? There were no names, just pain and abuse.

He closed his eyes tightly as tendrils explored his face seeking entrance, a way to his mind, his thoughts and memories.

There were so many, so easy to steal, to learn about these fleshy fragile creatures who over run this orb.

He felt an eyelid tear and a thin tendril slithered into his eye, moving around the edge, towards the tiny hole at the back, leading to the control centre of the creature.

Tears poured from his eyes in an effort to wash the invader away, and the sodium chloride altered the osmotic pressure around the cells and the tendril withdrew to seek another way in.

Blood and tears trickled down the sides of his face and he tried to remember his name, who he was, what he was, but it was gone. He was nothing, no one. He wasn't alive; he didn't exist...

His body relaxed in resignation to the pain and agony as thorns enclosed him outside and spread out from inside...

-0-0-0-

A car stopped, and the driver pressed on the horn. He was annoyed. This was a long drive pick up, and if they weren't here, he was going to lose a lot of money.

He wound down the window and called, but they weren't there, or even within calling distance.

He wished he hadn't agreed to return. It was not something he did; he had been burned like this too many times.

He wound up the window – there was something creepy about these woods at night –and waited another five minutes. They were probably lost out there, and in the morning would crawl out embarrassed and tired.

Serves them right! Stupid tourists!

Then he drove home.

-0-0-0-

Aaron rolled over onto his front and reached out in front of him. A root sticking up from the ground ... He took hold of it with both hands and bent his elbows, pulling himself a few feet closer to Spencer. He called his name again. But again, the sound didn't move past his lips.

_Where the hell are you, Spence? Please, call me!_

Something whipped at his neck and chest, slicing deep into his skin. He felt blood spurt from the side of his neck and he clasped his hand against the wound and prayed that it wasn't arterial.

After a short while, he removed his hand and the spray didn't start again. He touched his chest and felt bile in his throat as his fingers made contact with bone. He could feel the v shaped rip down to his ribs. The pain was awful and the front of his ragged tee shirt was drenched with blood.

He vomited onto the forest floor, heaving and choking as he emptied his stomach, and then more. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and his guts twisted again and he heaved nothing. His throat stung and his head felt as if it was going to explode. He realised he was crying.

"Spencer! Reid!" He tried again, wondering if he would find him, or just die of exsanguination while he was ripped to ribbons searching for him.

With one hand he held the sides of the wound together, and dragged himself on with his other hand. He needed to stand up. His groping fingers touched a tree trunk and he embraced it with both arms and stood, hanging onto the tree. He had no strength in his legs and only his upper body strength was keeping him standing.

But he knew this was failing him too, and blood ran from the chest wound, and soaked his shorts and legs. He looked around him and realised that his vision was fading. He was running out of time. His arms weakened, and he fainted from fear and he slid down the bole of the tree onto the ground.

Lightening lit up the sky, and there was a crack nearby as the lightening split a tree down the middle. Huge penny sized drops of water hit his face, and the rain began.

-0-0-0-

This time it was Dave checking the time.

"I am going to check with the taxi company, find out if a cab went to pick them up."

He went to reception, and Emily sat with her hands around her glass. She watched as he dialled the taxi firm number, and listened as he spoke Italian to the man on the other end. After a minute or so, during which his voice raised, she could see he was getting annoyed.

He came back and sat down opposite Emily.

"The cab went back to pick them up, and they weren't there. They are still out there, Emily, and I tried to get a cab to take us out there, and they wont."

"So what are we going to do?" Emily felt a rise of panic.

"We can have a cab at six in the morning. That's the earliest they will take us."

Emily put down her drink. "Did you hear that?"

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the sudden sound of rain hitting the glass roof of the conservatory where they were sitting.

"Oh god..."

-0-0-0-

Spencer felt rain drops on his upturned face, and he felt the piercing of the tendrils against his cheeks. He wondered where he was, and tried to remember if he wanted to be here or not. Then the pain in his head started again, and he whimpered as blood ran from his nose and ears. he tried to raise his hands, and as he moved them he felt brambles tighten around his biceps and puncture his skin. Little trickles of blood flowed and dripped into the deep red puddle he was lying in. He wanted to get up, escape this pain, but with every movement the thorns grew and more blood ran from new wounds. Tears pressed from his eyes and washed blood from his skin, joining with the rain that was wetting his skin.

He heard the muffled sound of a tree cracking as lightening lit up the cloudy sky and the simultaneous rumble of thunder. He needed to get up, get out from under these trees, but he couldn't remember why.

He let out a moan of distress and fright as another bolt of lightening hit something else close by. He heard someone call.

His name? He couldn't remember. Who was out there calling him. The fear engulfed him like a shroud, the fear of not knowing, not understanding. He could remember a time when he could understand and the thoughts confused him and made him cry.

The rain hit his face in swathes, making breathing difficult. He felt things in his throat and down into his lungs, and his open mouth filled with rain and he thought he might drown lying there. He had to turn over, and as he attempted to move he heard the sound of the undergrowth moving as if revitalised by the rain on the dusty soil.

Bite them.

He clamped down his teeth onto the tendrils in his mouth, and a foul thick liquid seeped from the damaged brambles and made him gag. His stomach twisted and acid bile was pushed up into his mouth around the invading plant. He turned his head slightly to the side and vomited blood and acid.

He cried again like a child needing comfort, but there was no one there for him.


	4. The Storm

**A/N There is a bit of Italian in the story – the Babel Fish translation is at the end.**

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 4  
The Storm

"_**The wise man in the **__**storm**__** prays to God, not for safety from danger, but deliverance from fear**__**"**_

_**- Ralph Waldo Emerson **_

Aaron coughed as the rain splashed onto his face and washed the blood and dirt away. He wondered how long he'd been out, as the ground was waterlogged now. He rolled onto his front and pulled himself along to the tree he could see just ahead, dragging his useless legs behind him. The rip in his chest was open and bleeding and now he was soaked and very cold, chilled to the bone. He leaned against the tree and shivered.

_Spencer, where are you? Please, call out to me; I don't even know if I'm going in the right direction..._

Panting for breath, his chest and stomach hurting from being sick and the torn flesh on his hands and feet, he thought he might be sick again - the after effects of the antibiotic cocktail he had been on for the past two weeks. He rested his head in his hands and shook with cold and fear.

Where was Spencer? Was it too late?

Blood smeared from his hands onto the wet skin of his face. He shook uncontrollably with the cold and pain. Looking deeper into the darkness, he reached out for the branch of a tree and gritted his teeth as he pulled himself forward.

-0-0-0-

Some body was lying in the rain five yards ahead of Hotchner; Hazel eyes stared blankly into the dark sky; flashes of lightening reflected intermittently across his pale face; soft moans escaped his lips as he tried to remember who he was and where he was lying. He felt things full from his throat and nose, and he began to sense sound again as they slithered out of his ears. They pulled from his hips and waist and shrunk back in on themselves, leaving him helpless and broken. He touched his face with his freed hands and felt the last strand disappear. He opened his mouth and cried into the darkness.

Am I alone? Is there someone who can help me? Am I the only one?

He held his hand between his face and the sky and examined the shape of the shadow. Was this him? Or did he end somewhere else? Where did he end? Was he everything?

A sensation. Pain? He tried to draw away from it but it moved with him, stayed with him. He heard a sound... confusion...

-0-0-0-

"Spencer!" Aaron called. "For god's sake, answer me!"

A cry through the trees, and Aaron turned his head towards the sound. "Spence? Spencer, I'm here, I'm coming!"

He rolled away from the tree and pulled himself deeper into the forest. Suddenly his hand touched something – his chair – wrapped and entwined with evil looking brambles. Beyond, he could see some one lying on his back.

"Spencer!" he breathed. Not far but the thorns lay across his path as if protecting him, cutting him off, as if they wanted to keep Hotch from him... As if they knew he was there...

He would have to cross the barrier but in his condition it might as well have been the walls of Babylon.

He needed to get up.

As he lay there wondering how the hell he was going to get to him, he felt a stem against his bleeding right foot. He tried to pull his foot away, but it was gripped around his ankle, and was tightening. Thorns broke skin that was still unbroken, and pulled.

Aaron swung his arms over his head and tried to find something to hold onto, but there was nothing. Panic rising he snatched at the undergrowth and felt a root in his palm which he held onto as the bramble pulled harder on his foot.

He held on with both hands, remembering its strength when it pulled Reid away from him. He could feel his hands slipping around the root as his palms bled and coated the plant, and he wondered what would give first – his hip or shoulders.

The question was answered as his hip cracked and he felt his femur leave his pelvis. He screamed in agony and his fingers finally pulled away from their purchase.

Slowly the bramble shrank dragging him with it. Flailing in panic he tried to find something else to get hold of, but the root had been his last chance. He twisted round to his foot and saw the skin was being removed from his foot like a sock, and about two inches of muscle and bone was exposed in a ring around his ankle.

Desperate now, terrified he would pass out, he took hold of the stems that entwined his foot and pulled them away; quickly moving his hands out of the way before they could twist around his wrists. As soon as they were loose enough he eased his flailed foot through the loop. The stems hissed away back into the barrier and left Aaron lying in his back gasping in pain and smeared with blood.

"I need help," he whispered. "...somebody, please, help me..."

-0-0-0-

"Won't the polizia help?" Emily said, pacing. "They are Federal Agents after all."

"That means nothing here." He answered. "And they won't help us until they've been missing for twenty four hours. And technically they have only been missing since the taxi left the area. They won't alter that for us. We are just a group of tourists."

"We can't leave it until the morning." Emily said. "How are we going to get there?"

"Just a minute." Dave went to the reception and rang the bell. The night receptionist came from the back room rubbing his eyes.

"Can I help?"

"Abbiamo bisogno urgentemente di un'automobile."

The receptionist gave a list of phone numbers to Dave. "This one is best." he said, pointing to the top number. "But they are not open in the night."

"Posso prendere in prestito prego un'automobile?"

"Spiacente. Non abbiamo un'automobile disponibile per gli ospiti."

"Grazie." Dave took the list back to Emily. "Nothing." He said with a sigh and sat down opposite her. "So much for relaxing healing time."

"Dave, I need to go to bed for an hour or so. "

"You are right." He answered. "We will need to be fully alert tomorrow. The cab will be here at six. I'll meet you here at five thirty."

Emily stood up and walked to the door, Dave watched her go. He knew about her feelings for Hotch and understood her disquiet. He went to the bar and paid the tab, and went to his room. He really didn't think he would sleep though. He didn't bother to get undressed. He lay on the bed with his hands behind his head and listened to the rain on the window and stressed about two of his friends alone and lost in the storm.

-0-0-0-

Each drop of rain that hit his skinned ankle sent shocks of pain into his body. It amazed him how a useless limb could give him so much pain. He gripped his dislocated hip and tried to move to the tree he had seen with a branch overhanging Spencer. In agonised movements, he pulled himself along with one hand, gripping his right hip with the other. It was slow and excruciating, but the cold had numbed him a little, and his body shook and trembled with the cold. When he finally reached the tree, he leaned back on the trunk and howled with pain, screaming into the night.

He looked up at the tree. There was no way he could climb it, crippled with a dislocated hip. He would have to move around the thorns or through them.

There was a dead tree to his right. He reached over to it and tested its strength. It was brittle and he thought he could push it across the barrier. Gritting his teeth he leaned over and pushed his weight onto the bole of the tree, and slowly the old dead tree fell across the brambles.

"I'm almost there, Spence. I'm almost there!" he said and climbed onto the fallen trunk.

_So close... so close, Spencer, I'm almost there..._

-0-0-0-

_A sound? I know I should know what it is but my mind will not recognise it. It there another one? Or am I alone. I open my mouth and try to copy the sound I heard but it is not the same, just a scream of confusion and I think I am hurting and I can feel a new sensation. I don't know what it is but it is making me shake and the shaking is good._

_A sound again, this is different – differentiated words not a scream but I don't understand them they make no sense to me. I look up again at the sky; the rain hits my eyes and my face and the hurting does not stop and where is everything? I remember there was more but it is empty now. Please, sky, help me if you can, something, someone, help me..._

-0-0-0-

Hotchner saw Reid lift his hand and stare at it.

"Spencer!"

He felt the roughness of the tree trunk graze his legs through the thin cotton shorts that clung wetly to him. Glancing back, he saw the blood trail he had left smeared onto leaves and branches behind him. He hoped that the rain would not wash it all away.

Dave would come for him soon.

His left leg he could move, although it had no strength, but his right leg hung uselessly. Each time he inched his way closer to Reid, it felt as if someone was twisting his leg from his hip. He lay forward on the rotting tree and rested, his arms embracing the slippery bark. He dug his fingers into its softness, and prayed that it wouldn't snap and let him fall into the wicked bramble growth below. He knew he wouldn't survive that. The thought gave him new impetus, and he moved a little further forwards, moaning softly, tears of pain springing from tightly closed eye lids as his damaged hip engulfed his body in brittle and unbearable agony. His hands slick with blood slipped suddenly either side of the tree, and he hit his face hard on the bark, and for a second he blacked out as he crashed downwards towards the forest floor.

-0-0-0-

Emily paced her room. Sleep? That was a joke. She opened her window and watched the rain and the lightning in the distance. The sky was black, the moon on the other side of the storm clouds. She shivered, and hoped her friends had found somewhere dry to shelter; they were only wearing thin cotton clothes.

She remembered the night before, when he held her in his arms, doing nothing, just holding her. It was enough but she knew he felt he had let her down. She could honestly love this man. She just needed him to be back with her.

She thought about Reid, and how he had so wanted to be the one for him. She knew he had been hurt by what she did, and now it felt as if she had betrayed him. But she could not let a chance to be with Aaron pass her by, even if it meant letting a good friend down.

She checked the time – three forty nine. She threw herself on the bed and closed her eyes, and sheer exhaustion took her.

-0-0-0-

_I heard what I think could be something breaking, the sounds of a voice – I am not alone here, there is another someone calling ... to me? Is that me? The voice is crying now, and a crashing sound._

_I turn my head and I see something. I hold my hand up and compare the shape – another hand, reaching for me... I reach out towards it and it clings to me. Another..._

_...another person is here. I listen to the sounds he makes as he gets slowly closer, and his arms are deep red with blood and his body has left a smear of red behind him. He is hurting and I want to stop his agony. He is making a sound – breathing – each is laboured and accompanied by a cry – but I want him to stop hurting._

_I turn to my side and reach for him..._

-0-0-0-

TRANSLATION

We need a car urgently.  
Please may I borrow a car?  
Sorry, we don't have a car available for guests  
Thank you

Apologies to any Italian readers – blame Babel Fish!


	5. Following

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 5  
Following

'_**All the other trees said to the bramble, 'You come, be king over us.'' - Judges chapter 9 verse 14**_

"Spencer!" Aaron pulled closer to Reid through the water and blood that covered the forest floor. Wide confused eyes turned to him. Lips opened as if to speak, but no sound came.

"Reid, what happened to you?" Aaron wrapped his arms around the man. "Can you tell me?"

Arms wrapped around him in response, but still no sound. He was so cold.

"I will make you warm, Spence."

He pulled him as close as he could, sheltered him with his body from the rain, and the foliage rustled and moved around them. Aaron looked up, but the tops of the trees were still. He pulled his body onto Spence to protect him from what was going to happen. Holding him tight, he watched his eyes stare at nothing. The blank look in those expressive eyes scared Aaron.

"It's Aaron, Spence. Hotchner. It's me, I won't hurt you."

Spencer lifted his hands to Hotchner's face, felt the once familiar contours, now strange and nameless.

"Hotch-ner."

He gently pushed Spencer's wet hair off his face and cringed as he saw the rips and cuts in his skin, and the deep split in his eye lid.

_Oh Spence, I am so sorry – this is all my fault – If I hadn't wanted to come..._

"Yes, Spence. Aaron Hotchner. I will protect you. Nothing else will hurt you."

"Aar-on-hotch-ner."

Aaron felt tears in his eyes hearing Reid use his name. "Yes." He whispered, and held him tight. He felt very sick, the pain that tore through him, his leg and ankle, and the fear for Spencer...

He pressed his hip trying to relieve the pain, but he felt a grinding sensation deep in the joint, and gasping with agony, his head swam.

"Spencer, I am not sure if I can make it. If I pass out, don't move from here. Dave will come to find us." He tilted Reid's face towards his. "Do you understand?"

Spencer didn't speak, but there was a light in his eyes that was missing before. He knew the face; he knew he loved this man who had suffered so much to reach him.

Aaron knew his blood was running onto Spencer, blood from the terrible wound across his chest, from his hands, his wounded legs, scraped and torn. But he was with Spencer, and he would easily give his life for this man. He turned his head and looked up at the sky. It was getting lighter. A new day was starting, the sky clear and deep blue; the storm was over, and the streets and alley ways would soon be dry again. Tourists would wander the markets and relax on the beaches.

He rocked Spencer in his arms and Spencer closed his eyes and relaxed into this wonderful sensation. He felt light headed and the pain enveloped him in an evil wave and he passed out into blackness...

-0-0-0-

_His pain runs into me. He is holding me and protecting me but I want to take his pain and make it go away but he is holding it back. The breathing, still he cries out and trembles, still the dreadful wounds covering his body scream out for healing and I am not able to do it. He puts his body between me and the living thing that caused so much distress, but I want to protect him. He is only here for me and he is saying now that he is sorry and it is his fault but I cannot accept that..._

_I remember this man; I remember loving him, and those feelings could not be stripped from my mind._

_I don't want him to hurt but I can't stop it..._

"_Aaron...I love you..." I say to him, but he doesn't hear me. He has fainted with exhaustion and pain and at least now he isn't hurting..._

_I draw him closer..._

-0-0-0-

Emily woke with a start as someone knocked on her door.

"Emily, it's Dave. It's half past five, I have ordered a taxi and it will be here very soon.

Groaning, Emily went to the door and let Rossi in.

"I won't be a moment. Ill just go and freshen up." she said. Dave sat on the bed and waited. She went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and a very tired anxious Emily looked back. She splashed water on her face, and pulled her hair back into a hair tie. She thought of putting on a little make up, but she just wanted to get out and find Aaron and Spence.

"Ok let's go." Emily said, and the two of them went out to meet the taxi.

-0-0-0-

Aaron wasn't moving and Spencer was afraid. He tried to awaken him, but he couldn't. He knelt by him and listened to his heart beat, his hand gently resting on his bleeding chest.

"Aaron, I am going to get you some help." He said softly. He tenderly rolled him onto his side, and kissed his cheek. "You will be ok, Love."

He stood up and turned his back on him, and began to walk.

-0-0-0-

When the taxi stopped, Dave checked that it was the same place that he had dropped Spencer and Aaron. Dave asked him to wait and gave him fifty Euros. The driver looked pleased, and took out a newspaper and tilted his seat back and began to read.

Emily was looking for the route that Spencer took with Aaron. She shone her flashlight onto the path.

"They came this way." She said. "The marks of Aaron's wheelchair..."

The thought of Hotch being so vulnerable and in trouble made her shudder inwardly. Why had she let him go? Not that she had a say in what he did. Dave stood beside her.

The path was waterlogged, the pumice scrunched underfoot as they made their way along the track. Although the sun was up and the air was warming, the humidity was high and it was dark under the trees. Emily swept the ground in front of them with her flashlight while Dave, walking beside her, lit up the path ahead with his. They could see Spencer's foot prints and the deep ruts of the wheels.

"Why didn't they turn back?" Emily said. "This was hard going for them."

"Reid wanted to spend some time with Hotchner." Dave said. "They needed personal time together."

"Yes," sighed Emily. "But did it have to be out here?"

"Emily, don't be anxious." Dave said resting his hand on her shoulder. "We should assume everything is ok unless we find evidence to the contrary."

"Yeah I know." She said, resigned. "If Hotch and I are going to make it, I am going to have to let him have the freedom he needs." She added, more to herself than to Rossi.

_That is where Haley went wrong. She wanted more of him than he was able to give. Instead of being happy with what he could give her, one hundred percent for twenty percent of the time..._

She made a vow to herself never to fall into that trap.

A sudden sound in the undergrowth made them both stop.

"What was that?" Emily breathed. She shone her torch into the forest to the side.

"Probably an animal." Dave said, although the sound had un-nerved him. He had noticed already that there ere no birds singing; not something he remembered from previous visits to the Italian forests.

Their movements reflected the nervousness they felt as they walked stealthily deeper into the woods.

-0-0-0-

Aaron slowly became aware. The cold dampness of the ground seeped into his bones and a shiver ran through his body.

Spencer...

Aaron reached out and realised he was alone.

_Oh god, Spencer, where are you?_

Aaron rolled onto his back and winced as pain took hold of him. His leg hurt so bad. He wanted to rip it off; that would hurt less than what he was feeling right now.

"Spence!" he whispered shakily. "Please don't leave me...Please stay..."

Aaron pressed his hands to his face to stop the tears.

-0-0-0-

Spencer crawled through the wet fallen leaves under the branches of the trees. He could hear the sounds of someone crying behind him, and he turned to go towards the sound, until he realised that it was Hotchner calling to him.

_I cannot come to you, I am getting help..._

He moved forwards through the thorny stems of the brambles, hoping he was going towards the path. He could hear movement all around him, and the swishing and slithering of stems.

The sound he remembered was something to fear, but he could not remember why. He knew he had to hurry.

He stumbled on. His thoughts were of Hotchner whom he had left lying alone, and who had been calling to him. He knew Hotchner's life depended on him.

He held onto low branches to help his progress. Nettles whipped at his legs and his feet were bleeding. He had blood running from his ears, and he wiped at them. His hearing was faint, as sound tried to travel through blood filled canals, and an ache deep in his head made him want to scream. But he had to keep on.

When he put his hand out for the next tree and he realised that he had reached the path, he crashed forward to the wet ground, and lay unmoving face down on the narrow track. The water was not deep, but it was enough...

-0-0-0-

Emily and Dave splashed along the rain soaked path. They heard intermittent sounds of movement either side of them and neither of them liked it, but neither said anything so as not to alarm the other. So far the path had been fairly easy to follow, but now it was narrowing, and Emily felt as if the forest was closing in on her. She shivered involuntarily although she wasn't cold, and checked that Rossi was ok. His beam cut through the shadows ahead of them.

Just ahead, the path turned to the right. Emily walked as far to the left as she dare to try to see around the corner, but the path just began to wind its way through the trees as if they had come to the end of the man made track, and were now on the one created by the inhabitants of the forest. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

As they turned the corner, the tracks ended. Dave walked a few yards ahead, but there were no more wheelchair ruts, or foot prints. Emily stooped down and checked the ground.

"Dave, is this my imagination, or is there blood in this puddle?"

Rossi was by her in an instant, adding his light to hers.

"It could be." he said, touching it with his finger, and watching the ripples in the pink water. He stood up and shone his flashlight into the surrounding undergrowth. "There has been a disturbance in the..."

He was cut off mid sentence as a bramble stem wrapped around his ankle and yanked him off his feet. He landed awkwardly and splashed into the water, his torch flying from his hands.

"Emily!"

But she was already there; she was helpless as she held his wrists and tried to find something to wedge her feet against to stop the slow drag into the undergrowth. He tried to turn onto his back and to sit, but the stems were growing jagged thorns into the leather of his boot, gripping and pulling, and he couldn't turn over.

"Emily!" he gasped. "My boot! Undo my boot!"

Quickly, trying not to slice open her hands, and failing, she struggled to slide down the zip of Dave's boot, all the time, he was being dragged through the gritty water to the track edge. Dave gasped and fought against it, flailing his arms, trying to find something to hold on to.

"Dave!" Emly cried, "Hold onto something!"

She sat across Dave's leg and leaned forward, tugging at the zip. The blood from her hands was making the task difficult and at one point, a stem wrapped around her wrist. She pulled her hand away before it could tighten, and she saw that the thorns were through the thick leather of Dave's boot, and were now sticking into the skin beneath.

One final tug, and the zip undid, and Dave's boot was pulled off his foot and disappeared into the forest along with the entwining stems and thorns. Emily grabbed him under the arms and pulled him away from the edge of the path. Dave was sitting staring with horrified eyes into the forest, gripping his bleeding torn ankle. Emily stood wide eyed beside him.

"What the hell was that?"


	6. Nature Trail

**THEMIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 6  
Nature Trail

"_**In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences."**_

_**Robert Green Ingersoll **_

"We need to keep moving!" Emily said, holding her hand out to Dave. He took her hand and stood up. Quickly he took off his jacket and ripped off a sleeve. Pushing his injures foot into the sleeve; he tied off the end and tested walking.

"Is that ok?" she asked.

"It'll do." He said. "Let's keep moving.

He bent down and retrieved his flashlight. "If that thing got our men..."

Emily grabbed Dave's arm. "What is that?"

She guided Dave's flashlight up ahead. Something was lying across the pathway. Emily ran along the wet path, and knelt down.

"Dave, it's Reid!" She felt his neck for a pulse. "And he hasn't got a pulse!"

She turned him onto his back, and knelt across his hips. Leaning forward she started chest compressions. Dave limped to her side. She noticed that blood had soaked through the bandage on his foot. He knelt at Reid's head and turned his head to the side.

"Come on Spencer!" Emily said, leaning down on him. Breathe for me!"

Suddenly Reid arched his back and coughed water. Dave held his head steady and helped him to sit up.

"Reid, what happened? Where's Aaron?" When there was no answer, Dave turned Spencer so that they were looking into each other's eyes.

"Reid, where is Aaron?"

Spencer stared back at him, his eyes blank and teary.

-0-0-0-

Hotchner lay awake on his side on the forest floor, shivering with cold and terrible pain. His breaths came in shallow cries not understanding why Spencer had left him. When the first tentacle wound around his thigh he made no effort to resist, and he flinched as it crept across his leg and slowly bound them together, gripping with thorns that punctured his skin and blood ran in thick rivers to the forest floor. Pulling his broken hip, bones ground together and he yelped in agony and tried to escape, but he had no energy and his thrashing arms simply exhausted him without helping him free himself.

He submitted to the creature; maybe if they had him they wouldn't touch Reid.

_Spence...where are you?_

Slowly, inexorably, the stems grew around him and enclosed his body, pinning his arms into his sides, preventing any movement. In his mind he shrieked out for Spencer.

-0-0-0-

"We have to get him back, Emily." Dave said. "We need to come back with a weapon to find Hotch."

"We can't..."

"Prentiss, Help me with him." He said, lifting Reid up so that he was on his feet. "We will get a knife or a machete and come back for Hotch."

"I'll stay here." Emily said.

"No, it's too dangerous. We can come back and find him...EMILY!"

Emily turned away from the forest and walked behind Dave. She didn't want to leave Aaron; she had only just found him. But she had to leave...

"I'm coming back for you." She whispered. "I'll never leave you."

Emily took the flashlight from Dave and shone it ahead of them. Dave carried Reid against his chest, limping back along the path. It was a long walk back to the car. After a few hundred yards she took Reid from Dave and carried him the rest of the way. He did not resist, neither did he help in any way. He was inert in her arms, unresponsive and expressionless. He felt light, and she was surprised at his weightlessness.

The taxi was still there when they reached the car park. Emily strapped Spencer in the back seat and slipped in beside him. Dave sat in the front by the driver.

"Dobbiamo prendere questo uomo al pronto soccorso più vicino." Dave said, "Ed allora la stazione di polizia."

The taxi driver folded his paper and put it on the dash. "Sta andando essere alright?"

"Guidi appena e rapidamente!"

The taxi drove quickly out of the car park, taking the road back to Naples. Reid sat in the back of the car and stared into space, his eyes unfocussed.

Emily tried to chat with Reid, but he was indifferent to what was going on around him. As the taxi pulled into the hospital grounds, Spencer slumped forward in his seat.

"Reid's passed out! Quickly!" Emily cried. "Get to the door!"

The taxi drove to the ER entrance, and a doctor ran out. Spencer was suffering from apnoea , and the doctor laid him flat on the back seat of the taxi.

"I am going to have to intubate him here." He said. "Please would you go and book him in while I sort him out and get some oxygen in him."

Dave turned to Emily. "You stay with him. I'll take the cab to the police station and get a weapon, and pick you up on the way back. Stay with him until then, ok?"

Emily nodded numbly and hurried off to the reception. A ported brought out a gurney and they lifted Reid onto it. Then the doctor noticed Dave's foot.

"I'll take a look at that" he said, but Dave refused. "I don't have the time." He said. "When I bring my friend in, then you can check out my foot. But if you have a pair of boots I could borrow, I'd be grateful."

"Find the man a pair of boots in the emergency store." The doctor said to the porter. Dave followed the porter to a walk in cupboard, and he was given some shoes. Dave slipped his feet into them, and was glad they fitted.

"Grazie." He said. "Sono buoni." He ran back out to the cab, in time to see them wheeling Reid into the ER. Dave got into the front seat of the taxi.

"La stazione di polizia per favour." He said and the taxi sped out of the hospital grounds.

He rested his head in his hands and prayed that he was doin the right thing. Reid would have died if they hadn't come straight back but what was happening to Aaron now? Would the police help him, or would he and Emily have to go back in with no back up? He hoped that at least they would provide him with a machete; something to fight whatever it was in the forest. Then they would have to find out what this thing was, and how it got there.

But now his concern was Aaron. Everything else at this stage was secondary.

-0-0-0-

Aaron felt the brambles entwine around his body and tighten across his chest. His arms were pinned to his side, and he had no strength to push them off. The thorns dug deep into his skin and twisted around his neck and face. His thoughts were confused. Why did they want him? He was not important. They took Reid's mind, but he was exceptional, a mind like his was rare. Aaron was at the limit of his pain threshold, and he knew that if he fainted, he would probably die.

He thought Spencer was getting help for him. He hoped he was, because in the condition he was in, even if the creature withdrew, he was too weak to get back to the path.

His eyes and lips he kept closed; he remembered Spencer's eye lid and the tear through it, and wondered if the thing was going to do the same to him. He tried to analyse what was happening. These things were clearly not native. Pushing the pain out of the way he tried to think like a profiler. The thing could be a failed experiment; the result of the volcanic gasses or radiation; something extra terrestrial (He tended to take Scully's view on this!); or a military exercise. Four options – was it four? He tried the list again, but he had forgotten it. He felt angry and frustrated, and in anger, he pulled at the tendrils, only to feel them tear at him, and draw more blood. Bitter tears of distress welled up in his eyes and pushed between his eye lids.

_Spencer, whatever happens, please, survive, and please, don't let David blame himself for this..._

-0-0-0-

Emily sat in the ER next to Reid and held his hand. Two nurses, one on either side of him, were stitching his wounds. Some just had butterfly clips while others, such as the one on his eye lid, were stitched. Spencer was on a respirator, and was lying completely still.

Dave had been gone a while now, and she thought it was probably time to go down and meet him. She gave Reid's hand a little squeeze and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

"We're going to bring Aaron home now." She said, and turned and left him. It tore her apart doing this, but now Spencer was safe, Aaron was priority. She ran to the lift, and went down to meet Dave.

-0-0-0-

Dave saw Emily leaving the casualty department as the taxi pulled into the car park. As soon as it stopped Emily got in and it sped out again. Dave had got a machete from the police weapon store but they had refused to come out as back up. When the cab arrived at the drop off point, Dave paid him to stay again.

"We might need you to get to the hospital again." He said. "So please wait for us."

The driver nodded, and took a book from the glove pocket - 'Pompeii and Herculaneum – A Native's Guide' – and sat back to read.

Dave gave the machete to Emily, and he carried the flash light. Although it was mid morning now, and the sun was hot and fierce, it was cool and damp under the trees. Quickly they made their way back to the place where they had found the first traces of blood, all the while keeping vigilant. They could hear the thorny stems whipping in the undergrowth, and Emily had the uncanny feeling that they knew she was armed now with a weapon that could beat them. No tendrils wrapped around their feet this time.

"We are going to have to do a search by eye." Dave said. "But check everything. We don't know what...erm...we don't know..."

Emily nodded. Dave walked in front and shone his light on the ground and the lower branches.

"It looks as if Aaron made his own way through here." Dave said, his light picking out blood on the lower branches of the tress. "Probably following Spencer."

There was a lot of blood. Considering there had been a rain storm, there was a lot left, and it wasn't encouraging.

"How could Aaron have come all this way if he was unable to walk?" Emily asked.

"Aaron is a very determined man." Dave said.

Emily knew he was right. And for a member of his team, they both knew he would lay his life down without a second thought.

They were a hundred yards or so off the path, and were about to give up on this route, when Emily saw something.

"Aaron! Oh god...Aaron!"

-0-0-0-

_I thought I heard someone calling me. I want to call back but I am afraid to open my mouth. The pain of the thorns opening up in my ears and nose is excruciating.They are exploring my insides and I can feel them tearing at me and I keep quiet, and I am sure it is Emily calling me. Emily, don't come any closer. It will hurt you. Leave now while you can!_

_Yes, I would lay down my life for you, and any team member. It is what I do...what I am. Without that I am nothing._

_Please Emily, David, turn away while you still can. The weapon you carry will enrage them, but they cannot be beaten. _

_I do not want to be set free at the cost of your lives. The price is too high._

_A hand is touching me – touching my face._

_And the real battle for life is starting..._

_-0-0-0-_

**TRANSLATIONS courtesy of Babel Fish  
We need to take this man to the nearest emergency room,  
And then the police station.  
Is he going to be alright?  
Just drive, and quickly!  
Thank you. They are fine.  
The police station please.**


	7. Lotta per Vita

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 7  
Lotta per Vita

_**Alex Tan **__**wrote. "Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see life with a clearer view again."**_

"Dave, he'd alive." Emily said. "But he's very cold." She touched his blue lips with her finger tips. He opened his mouth very slightly and kissed her.

"Oh, Aaron!" she said softly. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and hold him close to her.

"Aaron, I'm here for you..."She watched as his eye lids fluttered and he opened his eyes. He looked at her, pleading with her to leave while she was able to. He felt tears spring to his eyes.

"I will free you, Darling."

"Stay with him, Prentiss, give me the machete."

Without taking her eyes of Aaron's she handed the weapon to Dave.

He took the machete and held it above his head, bringing it down in the tendrils that held Aaron to the ground. The living branches shrunk back under the assault, but as he raised the weapon a second time, he heard a scream.

"No! Dave! No!" Emily cried, as Aaron screamed and writhed as the thorns grew longer and tightened around his unprotected body. His chest was constricted and as he cried out silently to her, he was not able to breathe in again, and she watched horrified as he was asphyxiated to death before her. His eyes gradually glazed over and his rapid terrified heart beat slowed to a halt.

"Aaron!" Emily screamed. "Oh god, Dave help me! He's dying!"

-0-0-0-

_I can't take this pain for much longer. Never before have I wished to die as fervently as I do now. This thing has found its way into me through every possible way, and the tearing inside me – I can almost hear it as my insides are ripped apart. There is something in my head but there is no pain there. And I am so cold, but I cannot shiver now. I feel Emily close and I try to tell her to go...to leave but she touches my lips and I kiss her, but the thing does not like emotions and she wants to hold me and I want her to leave but I can't tell her and I feel myself cry._

_They are going to use a weapon, and it will not work, and David has damaged the creature and it holds my lungs empty and there is no breath, and now I reach towards death and I am going to faint and I hear a scream and I think it's me but it might be Emily and life seeps away and I think I am dead. There is danger here not for me but for Emily and David, and I love these friends so much and I want them to go..._

-0-0-0-

Dave knelt beside her and wedged the end of the machete under the tendrils that squeezed around his chest.

"Stand back, Emily. I don't know how this will react!" He levered at the growth, and the tendrils snapped back, springing and ripping like tightly wound barbed wire. Blood cast off hit the leaves in the tress above their heads, and whipped back and forth as if in throes of rage. Blood sprang from the puncture wounds in thick red fountains. Ignoring the thorns, Dave and Emily tugged at the brambles and Dave threw the pieces to one side. They twisted around Dave's legs and pulled him off his feet; he chopped at them with the machete as Emily held Aaron under the arms and pulled him away.

Aaron made no movement as she dragged him, Dave was fighting and hacking at the tendrils around his legs and then one caught his wrist and the weapon was pulled away from him. He wrapped his arms around a tree and hung on, shouting for Emily, who left Aaron, and ran back to him. She retrieved the machete and carried on hacking and cutting at the stems that were around Dave.

A high pitched whine cut through the air, and the stems suddenly shrunk away into the forest. Dave rolled to his front and crawled away towards where Aaron was lying quite still, and Emily, still wielding the machete, backed away with him. When they reached Aaron, Dave turned onto his back again, resting up on his elbows he looked into the forest with a masque of terror.

It was silent now. No birds or little creatures scuttling through the undergrowth. The forest felt dead, not full of life as it should.

Dave stared unblinking. Emily knelt in front of him.

"Dave, we need to get back before they attack again. We have to get help for Hotch. I think he...I think..."

Dave blinked and stood quickly and followed her to Aaron's side.

"We have to get him breathing." He said. He knelt with his knees either side of Aaron's head. He felt his neck for a pulse and there was one, although it was weak and irregular. But there was no breath in him. Rossi held Aaron's bloody nose closed, and he sealed his mouth around Aaron's and breathed into him. He watched as Aaron's chest rose with the pressure of borrowed breath. Twice more, and on the third one, Aaron's body took over.

"Ok, now we carry him out of here." Dave said. He held Aaron in a fireman's lift, and with Emily taking some of his weight, they walked as fast as they could back to the taxi, which they hoped would still be waiting.

-0-0-0-

_They want me to live and they are forcing life breath into me, and I am cold but now the cold hurts. The creature has withdrawn injured, and I have given it my blood and I am being lifted and I am flying and I want to lie down and I hurt. _

_Colours...I cannot remember them; they have names, I have a name but I don't need it and There is one who wants to embrace me and I want to sleep. Eyes closed face against rough...something, bleeding bleeding bleeding...Leave me here and let me die and become the forest. I want to be the forest...let me go please, oh please, if you love me you will leave me..._

-0-0-0-

"The taxi!" Dave yelled. "Open the doors."

Emily ran forward and opened the back door. It was only then they noticed the driver was gone, and the driver's seat was ripped and there was blood on the torn fabric and the broken edges of the window.

No keys.

"Get in the back with him Prentiss. I'll drive!"

Dave sat in the blood soaked seat, adding his own to it, and pulled wires out to bypass the ignition. The car sprang into life and Dave put his foot down and screamed out of the car park.

Softly Emily whispered to Aaron, keeping him breathing, not letting him forget. He rested limply on her shoulder and she felt the wetness of her tears on her shirt.

"Don't cry, Sweetheart. You are safe now. Spencer is safe, and he is in the hospital and you will be there too soon. You are going to be ok." Emily rocked him and spoke to him in gentle tones, hoping that some of what she said would get through. But she remembered what happened to Reid, how he suffered from apnoea, just like the children who had died.

The warmth of her body slowly transferred to him, and his lips lost their blue tinge and gradually returned to their healthy colour. His skin was still pale but not cold any more.

"Life is too fragile to leave things unsaid, Aaron." Emily said gently. "I love you."

Very slowly his head lifted and he tilted his head slightly; his tear filled eyes looking deep into hers.

_You love me?_

His eyes frowned in confusion.

"It's ok. " she whispered to him. "Just live. We'll deal with the love stuff after." She really didn't know whether to sing with joy that he was alive or cry in grief at the state he was in.

Before they reached the hospital, Aaron had fainted. Emily knew threw was something wrong with his hip, it was out of shape, and she thought dislocated. There was a horrible wound on his chest, and it made her cringe when she realised that what she was looking at was the dirt encrusted bone of his ribs. She couldn't imagine the pain he was in, with all the other cuts and rips all over his body. Her own hands were badly cut; it was only now that she realised just how bad her hands were. She would have been leaving hand prints on him, if he wasn't already drenched in his own blood.

"Almost there, Emily. How's he doing?"

"He's breathing, and I can't be sure, but he seems more responsive than Spencer was." Emily answered.

The hospital gates were just ahead, and it was with a profound relief that Dave drove through them to the casualty entrance.

-0-0-0-

The doctors took Aaron from Emily, intubated him, and set up a drip for saline plasma expander and glucose.

"His friend, Dr Reid, won't eat, so he's on a glucose drip too. They will be together in the High Dependency Unit."

They packed Emily and Dave off to a cubicle to be checked and stitched, while Aaron's chest wound was clipped closed and antibiotics were added to the IV.

A tall blond man came into the cubicle where Dave and Emily were being treated. He stood in the corner of the room pretending he didn't exist and watched as a nurse gently bathed and cleaned Dave's foot.

"You will need antibiotics, Mr Rossi." The nurse said. "The doctor will organise that for you."

She left the cubicle, but not before casting a nervous glance at the blonde man in the corner.

"Lorenzo Prezzelli, Polizia nazionale." he said when they were alone. Dave extended a bandaged hand to him.

"Special Agent David Rossi." he said. "And Special Agent Emily Prentiss, FBI."

Perezzlli igored Dave's hand and ignored Emily even more. Emily begun to understand the look the nurse had given him. He spoke in Italian to Dave. Emily picked up some of it. He was telling Dave it seemed that they were trespassing in the forest on military land. Dave spoke little, and when he did, it was with anger. Prezzelli left abruptly while Dave was speaking. Emily didn't think she had ever seen Dave so angry.

"What was that all about?" she said as the door closed.

"Apparently, there was nothing amiss and we were foolish to wander the forest alone."

"We've been warned off?" Emily said, incredulous.

"Seems so." Dave said, gritting his teeth. "We'll deal with that later. Let's check on our men."

-0-0-0-

There was a child sitting next to Spencer's bed, holding his hand and stroking his face. A woman sat in the corner watching.

"Che è Rita." She said."Sono il suo assistente sociale. Era il superstite, come il vostro amico è. Abbiamo pensato che fosse encouraging affinchè la incontrasse."

Emily looked at Dave.

"She said Rita survived the forest attack like Reid and Aaron."

Emily went to the child, and held out her hand. "Rita, I am Emily."

Rita smiled and briefly held Emily's hand.

"Era su sostegno vitale?" Dave asked.

The woman nodded. " Era molto malata, ma sta recuperando. Così il vostro men."

She stood up and took Rita's hand and they left. But both Emily and Dave were encouraged by Rita

Emily went to Aaron's side, and stroked his pale cold face, brushing his hair back. She had so much to say to him, she didn't know where to start. So she said nothing, and just kissed his forehead gently, and prayed that he would recover soon. She hated to see him so helpless, and she knew he would hate it too.

Spencer was in the adjacent bed. She turned and watched him breathe with the tube in his throat. The soft hiss of the respirators were synchronised, and the beeping of the heart monitors had a soporific affect on her. She sat in a chair between her friend and her lover and fell into an exhausted sleep. Dave sat where the social worker had been, and rested his head against the wall.

_I am deeply sorry, Aaron, Spencer, to have brought this on you..._

Dave had never cried in front of people. Even as a child he was taught that boys didn't cry, and if he got a smack off his Mum, an event that was not infrequent, he used to lock himself in the toilet and cry here no-one could see him. That is what he did now. Racked with guilt over his friends, and in a lot of pain, he limped away to the men's room.

-0-0-0-

TRANSLATION, courtesy of BABEL FISH

"That is Rita." The woman said. "I am her social worker. She was the survivor, as your friend is. We thought it would be encouraging for you to meet her."  
"Was she on life support?"  
"She was very ill, but she is recovering. So will your men."

-0-0-0-

**A/N – Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I travelled home from Tin's (Panic's) house and it was the train journey from hell, and I was kernakkd when I got in. I hope you forgive me and I'll try to post twice when I have the time  
Love as always  
Ags**


	8. Connections

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 8  
Connections

"_**A hidden **__**connection**__** is stronger than an obvious one.**__**"**_

_**Heraclitus of Ephesus **_

  
"Dave! Rossi, Where are you?"

He could hear Emily calling to him, but he wasn't yet ready to face her. He almost lost his two closest friends by bringing them on holiday and they could still die. He should be by their sides but the guilt was too much and he was more afraid than he ever had been.

He needed something to occupy him. He unlocked the door and went to the mirror. There was no way to disguise the red swollen eyes. He splashed water onto his face and blotted it dry on the roller towel. He felt his hands shake and he held them up in front of him. A dizzy feeling suddenly washed over him; he grabbed at the basin, and managed to stay upright. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. He hung his head down, and tried to regain control...

_What the hell is the matter with me? Merda! I can't let this happen!__ Maledica!_

He stood for a minute, trying not to hyperventilate. He let go of the basin and reached for the door. His vision swirled around him like some crazy ride. He tired to find some support but he fell backwards onto the tiled floor and blacked out.

-0-0-0-

Emily was searching for Dave to tell him something. The local news network had just announced that the area where they'd been attacked was now military, and the forest was to be destroyed. She knocked tentatively on the door to the men's room.

"Dave, are you in there?"

Carefully she opened the door, but something, or someone was blocking it. She opened it enough for her to squeeze through, to find Dave lying on his back on the other side.

"Dave!" She checked his pulse and breathing. The pulse was strong but rapid, his breathing light and shallow. His skin was clammy and sweaty. Emily recognised the symptoms right away.

Acute stress disorder.

"Dave, wake up! We need you awake!"

She had been concerned for Dave when he hesitated in the forest, and seemed to freeze. She should have seen this coming.

There was no bleeding but the floor was hard, and there was a lump on the back of his head.

_I don't believe this is happening! I will wake up in a minute!_

She rolled him onto his side and went out to find a doctor. When she got back he was coming round.

"Dave?" she said, stooping in front of him and taking his hand. "You passed out. I think you'll have a headache for a while. Can you stand?"

Dave stared at her with a confused look, but he stood with the help of the doctor and Emily.

"Ci è una sedia a rotelle all'esterno. Sto andando scriverlo in su per i raggi X capi. "

"Non parlo italiano." Emily said, annoyed that this was one of the tongues she was not fluent in.

"Ahh!" the doctor said. "Chair for Signor Rossi. X-ray!" He pointed to his head. Emily smiled.

"Grazi."

They helped Dave walk out of the men's room and sat him on the chair. The doctor called for a porter to take him to x-ray. Emily explained carefully to him what was happening. She was concerned for him. He had seemed ok before. But often shock sets in when the pressure is off.

She wandered slowly back to the ward where Aaron and Spencer were still sleeping. On the way she tried to get her thoughts straight by asking herself what would Aaron do now, if this was a case?

_Call Garcia, find out what she can about the area, and any military activity going on, or Homeland Security experiments. _

She thought the words with Aaron's voice-over. She prayed that it would not always be like that. She made a detour and went outside into the sunshine and called her friend.

"I bet you're having a great time!" Garcia said. "You and three gorgeous men! What a recipe!"

"Recipe for disaster." Emily said mournfully. "Will you be able to do what you do on the Italian International Police?"

"They are the equivalent t the FBI I think. I'll do what I can."

"Wonderful Pen. Now how are things there?"

"Morgan and Strauss haven't shouted at each other today. Looks like it's going to be a good day."

"Oh it's like that." Emily said, grinning at the image she was getting. "I'll call you later, Pen."

"ttfn!" and she was gone. Emily sighed and returned to the hospital, making her way back to the ward.

-0-0-0-

_My throat hurts. I don't know why, but there is something in my throat... and my eye... what has happened to my eye? My hands are heavy and I can't raise them. I want to check myself over because I am hurting in so many places and inside too, my pelvis hurts the most. I feel as if I have been raped. Have I? I can't remember. I was with someone, but I cannot remember his name but I will because some things are coming back to me._

_I want to open my eyes, but only one will open. I think the other is taped – so I am in a hospital – again... Hotchner... Aaron Hotchner... that is the name... but I can't call it because there is a tube in my throat ...a tube to breathe for me... and someone is holding my hand but it is not Hotchner, the hand is small and cool. I cannot see who it is but it is a gentle hand, a caring hand, and this person is worried about me and Aaron Hotchner. He is here, safe, she tells me but my ears don't hear, my mind does. _

_Something is happening at home. What is happening?_

_THEY ARE GOING TO DESTROY US! The forest! It must stop!_

_If I cough, maybe they'll take the tube away... it hurts! It hurts! IthurtsithurtsITHURTS..._

-0-0-0-

Emily was sitting between the two men, head back against the wall, eyes closed, exhausted. When Spencer started to choke, she was up in an instant. His unbandaged eye was open wide and tear filled. Gradually the coughing fit eased, and a tear ran from the corner of his eye and moistened his hair. His open eye focussed on her and she thought he was trying to communicate.

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

His eye closed slowly.

"Is that yes?"

Before anything else, there was a sound behind her. Aaron!

-0-0-0-

_I can feel it. They are going to destroy the forest... the burning! Oh the burning! It hurts so much... I cannot beat out the flames ... I cannot scream ... help me! Oh god please help me!_

-0-0-0-

Emily ran out of the ward to find some help. As she ran, she saw the social worker that she had met earlier. She was kneeling on the floor watching Rita, twitching and writhing, locked in a seizure.

_What in the name of all things holy is going on?_

Doctors ran to help the child. She heard the words Epilepsy and febrile convulsion and as the little girl relaxed, she was lifted onto a gurney. She was clutching at the doctor who was next to her.

"Aiutili! Aiutili!"

Emily watched as the distressed child was rushed through the doors to a cubicle. She carried on looking for help for Aaron and Spencer.

Just then the lift doors opened, and Dave was wheeled out. There was a doctor with him too. Emily ran to him.

"I need help!" she said, taking over pushing the wheel chair. "Dave, are you ok?"

Dave looked at her in confusion. He was still in the grip of anxiety, which was hardly surprising, considering what he had seen, but once again, her compartments were strong and buttressed.

There was a sudden crash from Aaron and Spencer's room.

Emily pushed the wheelchair quickly to the ward. The doctor hesitated in shock at the door. Spencer was making a terrifying gurgling sound, Aaron was on the floor next to his bed in the throes of a convulsion, his IV equipment had been pulled over; there was a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth where the tube had pulled out as he fell. Emily went to his side, the doctor went to Reid.

His unbandaged eye was staring up at the doctor, the horrible sound coming from his throat. He held Reid's head still, and slid the tube out.

"Sarà un istante prima che possiate parlare ancora."

Spencer gripped his arm."They are burning us! They must not burn us!"

Aaron started to scream. Emily was sitting on the floor by his bed trying to calm him.

"Help us! Help us! They are killing us!"

Dave called to Emily. "The plants. They are talking about the plants!"

Emily looked at him. "Yes! The area has been taken over by the military."

"I think they may be planning to use a flame thrower on the plant."

"There is a connection. What will it do to them if the plants are destroyed?"

"I don't know." Dave said, getting up and going to Spencer's side with the doctor. "But from what I am seeing, it won't be good."

A scream was heard from along the corridor. A horrible, blood curdling drawn out cry.

"Rita!" Emily said, rocking Aaron who was hanging onto her, making distressed sounds. Then the sound changed.

Both men screamed as if in terrible pain.

"Burning us! Oh god make them stop! Make them stop"

And the dreadful screams continued as the two men were burnt to death before them.

-0-0-0-

**A/N Sorry a bit shorter today. It seemed a good place to stop.**

TRANSLATION courtesy of Babel Fish

There's a wheelchair outside. I'm going to write you up for a head x-ray.  
Help us! Help us!  
It will be a while before you will be able to speak again,


	9. The Ambulance

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 9  
The Ambulance

_**Ladies and gentlemen, the world's forests need to be seen for what they are—giant global utilities, providing essential public services to humanity on a vast scale. - Prince Charles 2007**_

"Telefonata per voi, Agente Prentiss."

Emily looked up from where she was sitting on the floor. Aaron was writhing as if trying to escape something that was not visible to Emily. She held his face gently in her hands.

"I have to go, Sweetheart." She said. "I won't be long."

"Don't ... leave me! Please..." His words were cut off by another scream of agony.

"I must. I will be quick."

She had to prize his hands off her arm, and doing so broke her heart. She ran from the room without looking back at him. It was awful leaving him like that. She followed the nurse down the corridor to the telephone. She pointed to the one on the counter, and picking up a file, continued her work.

"Prentiss."

"Oh so formal, Honey-Pie!"

"Oh Pen! Do you have something?"

"Apart from a smile on my face? Of course! The area you spoke about, now militarised. There was an experiment being carried out on plants for use on the battle field, but it didn't work out. They were trying to produce artificial intelligence, take the enemy by surprise, then control them, so the enemy would have to either abandon their own men or kill them."

"That's horrible!" Emily shuddered. "So what happened?"

"When the experiment was abandoned, all the plants were destroyed, but the numbers didn't match. One was missing. Seems like you might have found it."

"Aaron and Spencer found it." Emily said, and told Garcia what had happened. She kept utterly silent while Emily told her.

"Oh that's awful, Em. Are they ok?"

"Well we thought they were, until the military started to burn the forest." Emily said, her thoughts with Aaron. "We really don't know what to do – take them back or get away."

"Please, keep me updated. I'll see if I can find anything else."

Garcia put the phone down and went back to her research. In the next room, Strauss was raising her voice again.

-0-0-0-

Emily ran back to the ward. Hotch was on the bed again, restraints around his wrists and ankles. He was tugging at them, arching his back and screaming, thrashing his head from side to side. She ran to him and touched him with cool soothing hands. He stopped moving and looked at her with frightened eyes.

"Hurts so much... help us... pl..."

He threw back his head and opened his mouth to scream, but he fainted. The heart monitor was going wild. Spencer was lying on his side facing the wall, crying softly. He had curled up as small as he could, and his limbs twitched, he heaved and vomited on the bed beside him. He had no strength even to move. His heart monitor was showing the opposite to Aaron's. He was Bradycardic. The doctor was at a loss.

"I feel we should be doing something." He said. "Getting these men as far away as possible from the plants, or taking them back to the forest, but if I get it wrong it could mean their lives."

Rossi had joined them. Emily told him what Garcia had found out. "It's a weapon." She said.

"And a pretty effective one at that." Dave said.

"I think that if the plants are destroyed, your friends will die of shock. We have to stop it from happening." Said the doctor.

Emily laid her cool hand on Aaron's forehead. "He's so hot." She said. "If we don't do something, and fast, he'll die right here."

"Wait here." Dave said. "I have an idea."

He left the room at a run. The doctor left them alone.

"Free me... please." Aaron whispered. "I need to get back, I need to go home."

The sad frightened look on Aaron's face cut Emily to the heart. "I can't, Aaron. I can't let you go. You could hurt yourself."

"Please, please help me."

"Don't ask me, Love. It hurts so much to say no." she said. "I hate seeing you like this, but I cannot free you." She stroked his face with the back of her hand. "I am so sorry."

As if a mask had replaced his face, he took on a look of great anger. "I order you to release me!" he said, his dark eyes flashing.

Emily took a step backwards, momentarily stunned by the sudden change. But then he arched his back and threw back his head and seized, pulling at the leather restraints. Suddenly, one on his wrist snapped. In the throes of the seizure, he flailed his arm, and grabbed at the wound repair on his chest. Emily ran outside for the doctor, as blood spurted from the gash.

As the seizure abated, he lay still, panting for breath. Then he reached over and released his other arm. He ripped the heart monitor electrodes from his chest, and did not notice the long drawn out sound of the monitor proclaiming his death. Sitting up was difficult, but he managed it. He freed his ankles, and tried to swing off the bed. He didn't remember that he couldn't walk, and his legs were still too weak to take his weight. He crashed to the floor, winded and gasping for breath.

"Spencer! Help me. We have to go back!"

Spencer who all this time had been feigning sleep, turned towards him.

"How?"

"Please help me."

Spencer got off the bed and helped Aaron to sit and lean on the wall. He was bleeding heavily again, but it didn't bother either of them.

"How do we get back?"

"We get a car. I think I can drive."

"You can't stand. I'll drive."

He went to the door and found the wheel chair that Rossi had when he came back from x-ray. He took it back in, and helped Aaron to climb into it. Spencer was pushing it towards the door when Rossi and Emily came back in.

"We are taking you back. I have just spoken to Prezzelli who was here earlier. He's holding up the burning for two hours. We have that long to get back and help you two."

"We should take the child Rita with us." Emily said. "I'll go and fetch her."

While Emily went to find her, Dave went down with Aaron and Reid to the ambulance station in the basement. She joined them as Dave helped Aaron into the ambulance and laid him on one of the beds there. Spencer sat by Aaron, holding his hand. The doctor came with them, and taped a pad over the opened wound on Aaron's chest. Emily was carrying Rita, and she strapped her into the front seat between her and Dave.

Dave was driving. He switched on the siren and the lights and drove too fast out of the car park.

-0-0-0-

As they drew nearer to the forest, the three victims began to react to its proximity. Rita reacted first, she started to try to release her seat belt, and reach for the door handle. Emily strapped her in again, and put her arm around her, trying to calm her. Aaron tried also to get off the bed he was strapped to. He was becoming violent, dark eyes enraged, shouting to be released. The doctor prepared a syringe of valium to sedate him, but it was difficult to administer as he was thrashing about so. In the end, he trapped Aaron's arm under his own, facing away from him. He quickly injected the sedative into his wrist. Within seconds, Aaron was calmer, although the doctor said it should have put him to sleep for several hours. Aaron lay back down with a sigh.

"Ineedtogetoutofhere..." he slurred. "Whydidyoudothat?"

"You were going to hurt yourself. It will help you relax."

"We don't want to relax!" growled Reid. We just want to get out of here."

That was when Rita grabbed at the wheel, and pulled it down to the right. Dave tried to regain control, but the ambulance was more difficult to drive than the SUV. It skidded and slewed across the road and back, fighting with the wheel, he thought he had corrected, when the concrete buttress of a bridge suddenly loomed. Emily screamed, Dave yanked the wheel to the left, but it was too late and the nearside wing caught it and the vehicle spun out of control, drove a short way up an embankment, and rolled onto its roof in a muddy ditch.

Rossi reached out a bloody shaking hand and turned off the ignition. His hand fell away and there was total silence in the gathering dusk.

-0-0-0-

For a long time no-body moved.

Spencer raised his head and looked around. Aaron was still strapped to the bed, hanging by his wrists and ankles. The chest strap had given way. His eyes were closed, his head hanging, and the steady drip drip of his blood on what was once the inside roof of the ambulance was the only sound. Reid tentatively climbed to his feet. Nothing seemed to be broken, although there was a cut on his forehead bleeding into his eyes. He wiped it away and checked on Aaron.

Aaron groaned. "Please, help me get out of this."

"I'm going on my own. You will hold me up."

"No no! Please take me. Don't leave me here!"

"What use are you?" Reid said angrily. "Tell me that!"

"Just help me out of here and I will show you!"

Spencer pulled the buckle and released his wrists first so that he fell, unable to save himself. Then he undid those holding his ankles. Aaron crashed down onto the roof, and didn't move. Reid didn't wait to check him, and went to the front of the ambulance, stepping over the body of the doctor.

There was a lot of blood. The steering column had pierced Dave's chest and he was slumped over onto the dash. Emily was leaning back, her face covered in blood. A piece of the door card was sticking through her arm, and it was bleeding heavily. The child was gone, drawn by the same inexorable force that pulled him and Aaron.

He thought Dave was probably dead, if not now, then soon. Emily was bleeding out. He quickly tied a tourniquet around her upper arm, and called for help on the ambulance radio.

Now he had to go.

He went back through the back of the ambulance. As he passed, Aaron grabbed his ankle.

"Please, don't leave me here. I have to get there too!" His eyes on Reid's, pleading.

"I can't take you. You will slow me down." Reid said. "And don't tell me you wouldn't do the same!"

Aaron looked away, knowing what the answer would have been. He had to do this alone.

Reid forced the back door open, and stepped out into the ditch. He knew the way; he climbed out of the ditch and followed Rita.

Aaron dragged himself to the door. His head was swimming, a mixture of the valium and the head trauma from falling. He looked out of the door. The ground was about four feet away, and muddy. He took a breath, and tipped himself forwards out of the door. The mud was deeper than he thought, and he struggled to try and get his head above the surface, but he soon realised that he couldn't do it. His hip was in agony, and his legs useless. His fight for life became slower, and he reached out his arm to find something to pull himself up with.

His last memory was finding a root on the side of the ditch and grasping it.

-0-0-0-

TRANSLATIONS courtesy of Babel Fish  
Telephone call for you, Agent Prentiss


	10. Crash Site

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 10  
Crash Site

"_**Have the courage to live. Anyone can die." **_ _** Robert Cody**_

  
David Rossi woke up slowly. He couldn't move. Something was pressing down... up?... on his head and upper body and his chest was injured, something had broken through his chest wall and he was bleeding...

What had happened? – Dave tried to remember... The child Rita had pulled the wheel and he could remember trying to regain control of the vehicle.

He had obviously failed.

He tried to turn his head to see Emily and Rita but he was trapped.

"Emily!" He called to her but it resulted in an agonising coughing fit and he spat blood and pink bubbles. He could only take shallow breaths and imagined that he was probably dying. He tried to call again to her, and this time there was a response.

"Dave? Are you ok?" She sounded fragile and in pain.

"I'm fine, Prentiss. I just can't move. Can you?"

"I think so. There's something stuck in my arm but there appears to be a tourniquet around it." He heard her cry out as she snapped off whet ever was in her arm. "Plastic off the door." She said, getting her breath back. "I can get down now. Who tied the tourniquet?"

"Rita has gone. Someone has called the EMS." She reached for the clip of her seat belt and released it. "I'll find the others."

She climbed into the back of the ambulance and found the doctor's body. She checked him, but it was obvious to Emily that he was dead. Spencer and Aaron weren't there, but the back door was open. She leaned out and looked down into the wide dark eyes of Aaron, just below the surface. His hand gripping onto a root on the side of the ditch.

"Aaron!" She climbed down into the muddy water and pulled Aaron back into the ambulance. His staring eyes scared her, and she started to pump his chest to get the water out of his lungs.

"Dave I've got Aaron, but he was thrown clear into water." Her voice was breaking. "I don't think I can revive him this time!"

There was no answer from Dave. He just thought, _keep trying!_ Breathing had become too painful for him, and he was near to passing out. Speaking would necessitate breathing, so he didn't speak. He could hear his blood dripping. It seemed to echo through his being. He knew that when he was released from the steering column, his lungs would deflate and he would die. He tried to ignore the pain and he just wanted to sleep as the life blood in his body drained away. Emily was shouting at Aaron.

She was pumping hard, and shouting at him. "Breathe, Dammit!" She heard a rib crack and suddenly, he coughed. Filthy water shot out of his mouth, and he tried to breathe on his own, followed by more coughing.

She pulled him into a brief hug. "I have to find Spencer."

"He's long gone, Emily." He said between coughing. "I need to go. I tried to follow him."

"You need to stay here. It's safe here."

"Please, Emily, take me to be with Spencer."

"I can't Aaron. I have to stay here and wait for the EMS."

Aaron had tears in his eyes. "I have to go, Emily. They are calling us!" He tried to drag himself to the doors but he was too weak. He rested his head on his fore arms and cried. Emily was at a loss how to handle it. She climbed back into the cab.

That was when she saw the blood.

"Dave you are hurt!" She said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Dave was unresponsive.

"DAVE!" Emily tried to waken him. Where the hell were the medics?

The sound of sirens in the distance, and Emily climbed from the cab and stood in the road and waved her arms and waited.

-0-0-0-

The driver saw her standing in the road. The headlights picked out the deep red of the blood down one arm, and the smears across her face. The second ambulance pulled in next to the wreck of the first.

"Ok, what have we got?" the medic said in Italian as he jumped down from the cab.

Emily didn't understand. She just said, "Two men in the back, one's dead, the other was, but I revived him." Emily said quickly, nervously. "One man trapped up front, with crush injuries." She added softly, "I think he might be dead too, although he was alive earlier." She didn't know how much he understood, but he said something in Italian and he ran round to the front of the wreck and indicated for his colleague to check the men in the back.

The guy in the front was in a bad way. "He's alive, just passed out." He said, checking his radial pulse as he was unable to reach his neck. We need to get him oxygen...Hey! Oxygen here please!"

A third medic brought the oxygen and with difficulty, put a mask across Rossi's mouth and nose. Brown eyes slowly opened and looked at the medic.

"How bad ...is it...?" he said, struggling with each word. "Need... to know."

The medic took hold of Dave's hand. "Che cosa è il vostro nome, amico?"

"Dave." He whispered.

"Non è buono, Dave. Sono spiacente. Dobbiamo tagliarli fuori." Dave closed his eyes and opened them in acknowledgement.

The medic called Emily. "You talk him. We cut ambulance, get Dave out."

Emily nodded and took Dave's hand.

"I need to keep you awake." She said, adjusting the mask on his face. "They are going to cut you out. Why did you say you were fine, Dave?"

"You couldn't do ...anything."

"They are here now, you will be fine."

"I will die... when the pressure... is gone... seen it bef...fore."

"No Dave. You will survive this. Be positive."

Emily had tears in her eyes as she heard the sound of cutting equipment. There was a slight movement of the vehicle, and Dave moaned and the blood stopped dripping and became a continuous stream. Emily tried to reach in and press the wound but she couldn't reach. All she could do was hold his hand and pray that he didn't bleed to death.

-0-0-0-

Aaron was pushing the medic away.

"You don't understand! I have to go! I have to get out of here. I need to go!"

"Non capisco." The medic said, kept on saying. Aaron was delirious, shouting and crying with pain.

"Please!" he cried. "I must go! No! Don't give me that I don't want it!"

His vision began to fade as he tried to push the medic aside, but now his arms were as useless as his legs and everything was heavy and he closed his dark frightened eyes and succumbed to the second dose of Valium. With a soft sigh he relaxed onto the floor. The medic carefully lifted him out of the ambulance and into the second one. Aaron rocked his head from side to side, in the grip of a dream. The medic touched his forehead with her cool hand.

"It's ok, Mr Hotchner. You are going to be ok now."

But Aaron wasn't ok, couldn't be ok, unless he could follow Spencer and Rita into the forest.

-0-0-0-

It was a long walk and Spencer was tired now. The forest held no terror for him, as long as he could reach the family and become one with it. To die and return to the ground and become one with the family.

Rita was ahead of him but that didn't matter. As long as no one tried to stop him, everything would be just great...

_Ha! Hotchner wasn't coming! Useless pathetic Hotchner, thought he could contribute to the central mind, but he has nothing to give! There is nothing he could give that I have not already given. And he wanted me to carry him? What a joke – a sad feeble joke of a man._

_I have always hated him. Leaning on the knowledge and skill of others all the time with none of his own. Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. About as special as a dog turd! Ha! Pushing and shoving and never a smile or nice word for anyone. Well Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, you won't be pushing and shoving me around any more! God I hate the excuse for a man_

"I hate you Hotchner!" he shouted to the trees surrounding him. "And I'm glad you are going to die without going back to the family!"

Laughing and feverish with borrowed power, he cackled out loud and stumbled on deeper into the forest.

-0-0-0-

"Ok."

Emily still held Dave's hand although it was doubtful he could feel it. The ambulance had gone with Hotch, and another one had come for Dave. Emily was frightened that it wouldn't be necessary.

A medic stood as close as was safely possible, ready with a pad and artery clamps. They had to be fast to save this man's life. The damage was serious. Often in these cases the aorta or the pulmonary artery or vein was damaged, split seconds mean life or death. The chest housed some of the most important circulatory systems. The medic held his breath as the pressure was released.

Arterial damage. Bright red blood shot in a brilliant arc from Dave's chest. The medic felt in his chest for the aorta and pulmonary vessels and found the broken one. He clamped it quickly and strapped a head collar onto him. There was a spinal board ready. He held it while the other medic slid Dave out of the wreck and strapped him down on the board. Within seconds he was intubated and was on pure oxygen. He was managing to take small shallow breaths, but he had a haemothorax, preventing one lung from inflating.

Counting up the ribs on his right, the medic stuck and empty syringe through his intercostal muscles, and drew off the blood that had leaked into his thorax. As soon as he was breathing, they took him to the ambulance.

"You, come. Arm hurt."

"No." said Emily. "I'll follow you later. If you could just cut the end off and bandage it. I have a friend who is wandering in the forest. He could be concussed. I need to find him."

She had no idea how much of that he understood, but he did understand that she wanted her arm bandaged.

With a sharp pair of scissors he cut off the protruding piece of plastic. He quickly bandaged it, and he and his colleague rushed off to hospital, taking Dave to safety.

Now she had to find Spencer. She searched the back of the wrecked ambulance for a flashlight and a weapon of some kind. There was a knife in one of the cupboards, a surgical knife with a serrated edge. The flashlight was on the floor where the medic had left it after working on Aaron.

-0-0-0-

Emily didn't like the woods, not at night, not when the unsub was completely unknowable. She was afraid for Dave and Aaron, and she had no idea where Spencer had gone. The forest was silent as if even the birds knew that there was evil in the air. She could almost feel it on her skin – a palpable physical thing that crept into her with each breath. She was cold, but that wasn't why she shivered as she followed Spencer's easy trail of broken branches and spots of blood.

At least he had made the way for her by treading down the undergrowth, and cutting back the more stubborn branches. Her flashlight lit the way ahead and when it moved and the shadows moved in the opposite direction she kept thinking she saw things in the sickly yellowish beam. A shudder passed through her as once again an insubstantial shadow took form and reached towards her. She started to stream when a hand clamped around her mouth and nose from behind. She struggled for breath, but there was no chance of her getting away as she felt the assailants forearm press her head forward on the back of her neck.

The flashlight dropped from her hand and as her world darkened she fell back into the arms of her attacker.

What is your name friend?  
It's not good, Dave I am sorry. We must cut you out.


	11. The Burning

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 11  
The Burning

_**Steve Irwin said, "I sincerely believe there's room for cutting down trees for forestry and grazing, so as we all get to eat. Everyone has to compromise."**_

"Thank you for the flashlight Emily." Spencer said to the unconscious woman on the forest floor. "Please don't follow me, because I really don't want to kill you..."

_I do want to kill you though. You stole Hotchner out from under my nose – not that I would go near him now, useless no-hoper that he is, but the point is, I wanted him, you knew that, and still you flirted until he succumbed to you. Well, not any more because he will be dead this tome tomorrow!_

He ran off into the woods, faster now that he had a flash light. He knew he was close now, his body was tingling like a mild electric shock, and soon he would be where he belongs...

-0-0-0-

Emily stirred on the ground. The cold dampness of the ground seeped into her bones, and she woke up shivering. She looked around for her flash light, but whoever has attacked her had taken it. She checked herself over, and she wasn't injured. She stood up and tried to get her bearings. There wasn't much light from the moon, but there was a little. She hadn't noticed it before, with the torch light. The way she had come was easy to find, and she carefully searched for the way forwards, trying to forget she was in the middle of a forest on her own with no light, and no sounds.

-0-0-0-

The OR was awash with blood and bloody swabs. Doctors with blood up to the elbows fought to save the man lying between them with a smashed open chest. There was a lot of serious damage, and the Chief of Cardiac Surgery was concerned that even he might not be able to put him back together. The man's heart beat in the open chest. Ribs had been cut away and the blood vessels sewn together. But the blood loss was extensive, and the heart kept fibrillating. The paddles were ready, and had already been used several times. He just thought next time, they might not be able to bring him back.

"We are losing pressure! He's bleeding again!"

The surgeon's hands once again reached into his chest.

"Prossimo su David. Non faccia questo a me..."

-0-0-0-

In another ward of the same hospital, a man was strapped down onto a bed. He was screaming and struggling to get away, out of the hospital and back to the forest. The fight was wasted effort though, and he could not break the straps holding him. His tear stained face and wide pleading eyes were getting to the nurse who had been told to monitor him. He stopped the fighting, and made eye contact with her. She couldn't let him go. Last time he had struck her, and her cheek still bore the hand print. It had taken six men to hold him down so that he could be restrained. She went closer to him and brushed his hair out of his eyes. She saw that his hip was dislocated again, and she couldn't imagine the pain he was in.

"I am sorry." She said in a strong accent. He looked up at her, tilting his head slightly. He raised his eyebrows.

"Please..."

She shook her head and went back to sit down. She couldn't bear to see him in so much pain.

The fighting started up again. Suddenly he froze, stared at the ceiling. The scream that left his lips was horrible. He arched his back and his head locked back; he was so twisted that he was looking behind him. The pain as muscles stretched beyond their limit and connective tissues snapped could have killed a weaker man. Aaron held tight onto life. The nurse rushed to his side and tried to calm him, but bruises appeared at his joints as capillaries broke and blood seeped under his skin. Without taking her eyes off him she went to the door and called a doctor to come.

Aaron's wretched body was still contorted and out of control. The doctor prepared a third valium injection, and emptied it into his neck. For a split second Aaron looked at him, then his eyes rolled upwards and he passed out.

-0-0-0

Spencer was getting closer to the family. He could feel it literally in his bones. That electric shock feeling was like gripping an electric fence, and he knew it would be affecting Hotchner the same, or worse, because he wasn't on his way home. He smiled to himself. He wouldn't survive it, Reid knew. It would kill him in the end. He was just sorry he wouldn't be there to witness the pathetic death of the Great Hotchner.

_I just hope before he dies his horrible painful death he remembers how useless he is! And how deserving of the fate!_

Ahead he saw the outline of the edge of the family. It glowed blue in his eyes. There was a man standing there. Reid could only see his silhouette, but he thought it could be the taxi driver. What the hell was he doing here? How did he come to steal his thunder?

_Damn him!_

Reid picked up a rock from the floor. It was only a light piece of pumice, but it was hard. He passed it from one hand to the other, gauging the weight. Carefully he crept up behind him and raised the rock over his head and was about to swing it down when something gripped his wrist, He looked up expecting a bramble to be twisted around it, but it was a hand.

"No! Reid, don't!" Emily said. The taxi driver turned around, and swore at him in Italian, and followed it up with a hard punch to the stomach. Reid would have doubled up in agony had Emily not been still holding his wrist. She let go and Spencer doubled up on the forest floor. The taxi driver was about to make good his advantage with a kick to the head when Emily pushed him away.

"Enough!" she yelled. He tried to hit her but she caught his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back.

Suddenly, the forest was lit up by arc lights. Emily shielded her eyes and tried to look who was there, but all she could see was the dark outlines of men with heavy guns in their hands. She looked at her watch. The two hours were up.

"Vada via! Vada via!" a young man rushed over to them, trying to push them away. Emily pulled Reid and the young lieutenant got hold of the other man.

"Disposizione sul pavimento!" he yelled and pushed his man down. Emily dropped and Reid fell with her. Arms around their heads, there was a whoosh of fire and the burning began.

Spencer screamed, "No! No!" as he fought to get away from Emily. She held him down on the ground by his shoulders and he screamed and swore and bit trying to escape. But there was no way she was going to let Spencer run straight into the flames. The young officer tried to get up, but like Emily, he held his man down. Emily caught the lieutenant's eye.

"Did you see a child Rita?" hoping he would understand.

"We have the child!" he answered. It was then Emily heard the little girl crying to be let go, and she was so relieved that the child wasn't caught in the flames.

"I take him to sergeant." The lieutenant said, and took the taxi driver over to where his men held the flame throwers.

-0-0-0-

Dave was in theatre for a long time. The doctors were amazed that anyone could lose so much blood and still be alive. Isotonic saline had been pumped into him to expand the volume. But his haemoglobin was below one. Every time they were about to replace his ribs and close, another blood vessel would tear or his heart fibrillated. When at last they had finished, and against all odds he was still alive, the doctor was almost afraid to close. He ordered Erythropoietin therapy to build up his red cell production, and it was with profound relief that he threw his overalls into the bin.

He stepped into the surgeon's shower and washed David's blood off his skin that had not been protected by his overalls. The water ran pink for a long time.

-0-0-0-

The massive dose of valium wasn't enough to keep Aaron under. He realised that the burning had begun because he could feel the flames lap around his body like hungry tongues. He could feel the agonising heat, and hear the destructive crackle of the fire. He felt his tears fizz and evaporate from his cheeks as the flames greedily licked at his face. In his mind his skin shrivelled and peeled back, and his blood hissed and bubbled as it boiled away under the intense heat. The drug was enough to stop the fighting and the seizures, but not enough to prevent the agony of dying without the relief of screaming. His body went into deep shock as he burned, his silent sighs went unheard by the nurse as he gradually died next to her.

-0-0-0-

Spencer could feel it too. He writhed and screamed on the forest floor.

"Help me oh please help me!" he cried, "I'm burning! I'm burning!"

"Spencer, listen to me!" Emily held his face and tried to force him to look at her. "Spencer! You are not burning! Listen to me! You are not burning. It is in your mind! It isn't real!"

Reid's eyes were wide with fear and shock as he tried to understand what was happening. He could feel each separate flame greedily lick at him, suck away his life. One bright hot finger slithered into his eye and he heard his eyeball pop under the heat. He pressed at his face, screaming in terrible fear and pain as he experienced burning to death. Again Emily tried to talk to him.

"Reid, it isn't real! Look."

She pulled his hands away from his face and forced him to look down at his body.

"See, Spencer, you are not burning."

He stared in shocked amazement. He reached out and touched whole flesh where his mind said were blackened bones. He looked at Emily, confusion and anguish in his huge hazel eyes.

"See Spencer," she said, brushing a lock of hair off his face. "It's not real."

"Not real..." he repeated, trying to understand. Then suddenly, as if he came to a sudden realisation, "My family!" he said. "They have killed my family! I should have died too!"

"But you didn't. It wanted you dead but you were strong enough to resist it." She put her arm around him and helped him up. The feel of being helped up reminded him of another time, years ago, in another woodland, and he remembered someone else.

"Oh god, Emily. Aaron!"

"Aaron is fine." Emily said. "He's in the hospital."

"But the family will still reach him. " A sudden realisation hit him and he felt sick. "Emily, I left him behind. I knew it would be fatal, but I did it anyway. Oh god, I left him to die."

Tears of dreadful guilt sprang from his eyes as he realised the true nature of what he had done. "Emily, I said some terrible things to him. I hurt him and now he's died, I can never say I'm sorry."

"Spencer! Stop. We may not be too late." She began to run back through the trees. "We have to call the hospital. Quickly!"

Reid ran after her with the flash light.

_Please, oh please, don't let it be too late. I am so sorry, Aaron. I am so sorry!_

-0-0-0-

**TRANSLATIONS COURTESY OF BABEL FISH**

**Come on, David. Don't do this to me  
Get away! Get away!  
Get down in the ground!**


	12. The Holiday

**THE MIND THIEVES  
**Chapter 12  
The Holiday

"_**He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." - **__**Friedrich Nietzsche**__**  
**_  
She looked over to her patient when she heard a long ragged exhale. She immediately saw that there was something wrong. His hands were clenched into fists and his eyes were huge and terrified. She crossed the room to him.

"Snr Hotchner?" she said, reaching for his wrist to take a radial pulse. He didn't respond to her. "Aaron, Look to me!"

Very slowly he turned his face to her, and looked deep into her eyes.

He tilted his head and whispered, "Burning...help me..." and his eyes rolled up and his fists relaxed.

His pulse stopped abruptly.

_Oh no!_

She punched an alarm on the wall and ran to the door. Grabbing the crash trolley from opposite Aaron's room, she unpacked it next to Hotch's bed, and waited for the doctor to arrive. Soon the little room was full, and the doctor pulled Hotch's pyjama jacket off his chest. The wound there was an angry red and infected. He made a mental note to prescribe antibiotics. It didn't enter his mind that the man may never need them.

He called for the paddles to be charged, and he held them onto either side of Aaron's chest.

Aaron arched his back and jumped on the table as the current passed through his heart. There was no response, so he called for a higher charge. This time his heart thrashed back reluctantly to life. He watched the tears run from the corners of his eyes onto the pillow. He thought the man was safe for now, but whatever psychological horror had hold of him was giving him a good fight. He returned the crash cart back to its designated place, but even as he did so he thought he would be using it again on this man. He ordered that Snr Hotchner be moved to intensive care. He thought this man had a fight on his hands.

As he sadly walked away, he could hear the phone ringing at the nurses station.

-0-0-0-

"No one is answering it." Emily said in frustration. She was calling from the wrecked remains of the crashed ambulance. Reid looked at the clotted pool of deep red on the 'floor'.

"That was Dave" she said. "He was rushed off. Was it you who called the Emergency Services?"

Reid nodded.

"You may have saved his life. He had bad injuries. But I don't know if he made it."

Reid changed the frequency on the channel selector, and called a taxi firm.

"They are sending a taxi straight out."

"I thought you couldn't speak Italian." She said in astonishment.

"I couldn't, but I had time to read the phrase book at the airport when you were all sick of rainfall statistics." He said wryly.

Emily smiled briefly. "Well, I'm glad you did. Can you get the frequency back, I need to call the hospital about Aaron, and check up on Dave. He readjusted the frequency dial and gave Emily the handset. This time the phone was picked up almost straight away. She passed the hand set to Spencer.

"Hello, My name is Doctor Reid. I am calling to inform you that Snr Hotchner is in danger and please watch him." Spencer said in his best phrase book Italian. What ever was said back was too fast for him to follow. He pressed the 'end call' button and dropped the hand set.

"I have no idea if he understood what I said, but now they know the danger Aaron is in.

"They won't be able to stop it will they?"

Reid shook his head. "But at least they will be prepared."

"The taxi will be here soon." Emily said.

They climbed out of the cab and waited in the road. Flickering from the burning could be seen through the trees. Every few minutes there was a roar as another plant went up in flames. The hiss of water on the fire and the smell of burnt wet vegetation were making Emily feel sick.

When the taxi arrived they both got into the back and didn't speak while they were driven to the hospital. Emily was desperate to see Aaron, she wanted to hold him and help him to see, as Spencer had done, that the flames were not real.

She was also scared for David. How awful that he had paid for this holiday for them, only to see his friends lives once again being in danger. And now, he was paying for his generosity with his own life. She couldn't bear the thought of him losing his life. When the taxi arrived at the hospital she paid the driver and the two of them ran through the doors.

-0-0-0-

The Intensive care unit was quiet except for some music playing at the nurses station. 'Dancing Queen' seemed inappropriate, but some how comforting to the two agents that walked the corridor to the main ward.

Aaron was conscious and staring at the ceiling. Tears were streaming silently from his eyes as a machine breathed for him. Electrodes on his chest measured his heart beat, and his wrists were strapped to boards where IV tubes fed him antibiotics, glucose and saline. He didn't move when they came close.

"Aaron, can you see me?" Spencer held his hand and with the other he gently turned his face towards him. Aaron slowly nodded his head.

"The things are gone now. They can't hurt you any more."

Aaron turned his head away. He was burned badly. He had felt his limbs burn, he has heard his flesh crackle and his blood hiss. He had smelled the unmistakable odour of burned flesh. He didn't want to live like this. He wanted to die.

_Surely you can see why I want to be left to die..._

He saw only a charred living corpse – he couldn't live like this. He couldn't be a father to Jacky. He could do nothing except be a burden, and it was a burden he would not allow anyone else to carry for him.

Tears flowed afresh when he remembered the car he had bought his little boy. Now he would never see him ride it. He would not see his little boy again. He wanted to cry with the grief he felt, but he couldn't make a sound.

He looked at Spencer again, and slowly blinked his eyes, and turned away. The blackened skin of his throat cracked painfully as he moved his head. He wanted to scream in agony and distress. Why didn't they give him pain killers? Most of his body didn't hurt, third degree burns destroyed the nerves that feel pain - but the parts that did feel ... all he could do was cry.

Emily took his other hand. Aaron flinched as she squeezed the blackened bones, but in her hand was the whole flesh of a healthy man.

"Aaron," she said softly, "You are not burnt. Your mind is telling you that you are, but I promise you aren't. The hand that I am holding is perfect." She lifted his hand to her face and tenderly kissed his fingertips. "Can you feel that?" She stroked her face with the back of his hand. "And that? Aaron, your skin is whole. It's a trick. You are not burnt. Open your eyes, Sweetheart, and see."

Wondering for the first time how he could move his eyelids and see when the rest of his face was a charred mess, he looked up to where Emily was fondly caressing his hand. He blinked, as if to wash away the lie that he was feeling, and looked again. She wouldn't lie to him, he knew.

"It's true, Aaron." Spencer said. "It happened to me too. You're ok."

Emily leaned down and kissed him. "Your skin is not burnt, Aaron."

Aaron held his hands in front of his eyes and stared in shock. Emily wouldn't lie to him...

A doctor approached and asked them to leave. Snr Hotchner needed to sleep.

"We have to go, Sweetheart." Emily kissed him on the cheek.

"We'll call tomorrow." Spencer added, and they turned back down the corridor.

"I need to see David Rossi." Emily said.

The doctor nodded, and pointed out the room he was in. Spencer translated the notice on the door.

"He's being barrier nursed because of the danger of infection." he said. They took overalls, gloves and shoe covers off the shelf by the door, and entered the room. Dave was hooked up to a heart monitor and respirator. His eyes were taped shut and his chest was uncovered. A gauze bandage covered the ragged wound in his chest, and his skin was deathly pale.

All he wanted was for his friends to have a break, see some beautiful things and laugh and heal. Now he was so seriously hurt, he was not expected to make it. It was nothing short of a miracle that he had made it this far, but it was only the first step on a long road.

"Dave, it's Emily ." she said, taking his hand. "We're here here for you. Keep fighting... don't give up."

-0-0-0-

_Keep fighting, don't give up... I am so tired, and it hurts so much. Death is calling me, beckoning to me, glowing softly in a velvet blackness that wants to wrap around me. Death promises no pain, no fear... Emily is calling me one way to pain and fear, death calls me another way._

_Then I think of the loved ones I will lose if I go towards death – loved ones who are greater than any pain or fear... I need to stay... I must fight on..._

"Emily... Spencer... " he whispered. "Thank you..."

-0-0-0-

Before they left, they looked in on Aaron. He was asleep, his head on one side, eyes closed and breathing smoothly and deeply. Spencer heard Emily's shuddering sigh. He took her arm and led her to one side.

"Let's get a coffee, Emily. I need some caffeine and sugar."

As they turned to leave, the doctor stopped them. He spoke to Spencer, who in turn smiled broadly at him and said something back. The doctor touched his arm, and went into the office.

"What did he say?" Emily asked.

"He wanted to know what we had said to Snr Hotchner, because this is the first time he has slept since being here. I told him we had told him that he was ok and was going to get better.

Emily smiled happily, and they left the ward.

_**-0-0-0-**_

_**EPILOGUE**_

It was a month later that Dave was allowed to leave the hospital. The hotel had been able to extend their stay indefinitely. Aaron had come out two weeks before, once the shock had worn off, and the Valium reduced to a low dose. The three of them were sitting on the terrace drinking beer and coke when Dave came and sat with them.

"We didn't know you were coming home today!" Emily leaped up and hugged him.

He gripped Aaron's shoulder. "I managed to persuade the docs that I'm better." He grinned, putting his arm around Reid's shoulders. "Who wants a drink?"

"My round!" Aaron said and wheeled himself to the bar.

"I've seen the hotel manager, and I've booked us a two week extension." Dave said, sitting between Emily and Spencer. "If you want to stay, that is."

"That's great!" Reid said, unfolding a newspaper that he had on his lap. "I was just looking at this..."

A hand reached over his shoulder and snatched the paper from him, screwed it up dramatically into a little ball and threw it into the corner.

"Two weeks without any newspapers I think!" Aaron said as he put a tray of drinks on the table.

"Good idea!" Emily said, reaching for Aaron's hand. "Time to get you walking again." She smiled and kissed him softly.

_**END**_


End file.
